The Mud Wasp (Abispa ephippium), also known as the Large Mud-nest Wasp, is a striking orange and black wasp that is similar and sometimes mistaken for the Orange-tailed Potter Wasp (Delta latreillei).
Like many of these genus, the Abispa ephippium are solitary wasps who build mud pot-shaped nests, often in sheltered area. The mud nest is made up of a number of cell chambers, which 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.
- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Class: Insecta
- Order: Hymenoptera
- Family: Vespidae
- Genus: Abispa
- Species: A. ephippium
- Binomial name: Abispa ephippium
