Alice Springs Fauna •
Alice Springs WaspsAbispa ephippium Agriomyia maculata Bembicinae Bembix Blue Hairy Flower Wasp Cryptocheilus Cryptocheilus bicolor Delta latreillei Delta philantes Eumeninae Mud Nests and Potter Wasps Orchid Dupe Wasp Paralastor (Potter Wasp) Pseudabispa bicolor ssp. nigrocinctoides Sceliphron laetum Thynnid Flower Wasps Velvet Ant Family (Tribe Dasymutillini) Yellow Hairy Flower Wasp (Radumeris radula) Yellow Hairy Flower Wasp (Radumeris tasmaniensis)
Abispa ephippium is commonly known as a Mud Wasp or the Large Mud-nest Wasp. It is a large, striking orange and black wasp that is sometimes mistaken for the Orange-tailed Potter Wasp (Delta latreillei), which has a similar colouration.
The Abispa ephippium are solitary wasps who build mud pot-shaped nests, usually in sheltered area, on the walls of houses, behind and under overhanging structures. The mud nest is made up of a number of cell chambers, that the Mud Wasp fills with captured and paralysed caterpillars to feed the egg larvae that is laid in each cell chamber. Once the larva consumes all the food, they pupate and after a period of time they emerge as the adult.
You can read more on the mud nest and the different potter wasps here:
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- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Class: Insecta
- Order: Hymenoptera
- Family: Vespidae
- Genus: Abispa
- Species: Abispa ephippium
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