Delta latreillei (Potter Wasp)Potter Wasp – identity crisis Potter Wasp – larder Potter Wasp – mud nest Potter Wasp – water
Sometimes referred to as the Orange Potter Wasp and the Mud Wasp, the Potter Wasp (Delta latreillei, previously classified as Eumenes latreilli) are found throughout Australia. They are often seen around bodies of water, including bird baths and fish ponds, where they collect water to mix with sand/clay that is available to them in the area. From this mixture they create their mud nests. Sometimes Potter Wasp will add to existing mud nests, creating larger structures. They fill the mud nest with food for their larva, usually laying one larva per nest cell in different parts of the mud nest. A single mud nest can have a number of nesting cells.

In the following series of photos, we witness a closeup example of the Potter Wasp returning to the nest with a caterpillar to pack in the mud nest. There is a great series of photos that include one photo of the Potter Wasp curving its abdomen around the caterpillar, whilst it is shoving the caterpillar head first into the mud nest.
Following is another series of photos of the Potter Wasp (Delta latreillei) also packing in caterpillars into the larder, food for its offsprings.
The hole is then sealed. The evidence of the larvae having pupated into the adult wasp and having left the nest, is the exposed hole opening.

In the following images, the nest was damaged and you can see the content of the larder that would have fed the Mud Wasp larvae.



Further investigation of the damaged mud nest showed there was more then one larva indicating more then one nest cell.


In the following series of images you can see the young mud wasp larva. The adult mud wasp will be returning with caterpillars to pack the nest, before sealing the entrance.

- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Class: Insecta
- Order: Hymenoptera
- Family: Vespidae
- Subfamily: Eumeninae
- Genus: Delta
- Species: Delta latreillei
previously - Genus: Eumenes
- Species: E. latreilli
Delta latreillei (Potter Wasp)Potter Wasp – identity crisis Potter Wasp – larder Potter Wasp – mud nest Potter Wasp – water
WaspsWasps Index Australian Large Wasps Australian Mud Nest Wasps Mud Wasp Velvet Ants Abispa ephippium Acarozumia amaliae Aulacidae Australodynerus Bembix Bembicinae Bethylidae Blue Hairy Flower Wasp Braconidae Chrysididae Cryptocheilus Delta latreillei (Potter Wasp) Delta philantes Eumeninae Euodynerus aspra Ferreola handschini (Orange-collared Spider Wasp) Flower Wasps Gasteruptiid Wasp Hairy Flower Wasps Isodontia (Grass-carrying Wasp) Lissopimpla excelsa (Orchid Dupe Wasp) Mutillidae Orange Wasps Paralastor sp. Pseudabispa bicolor ssp. nigrocinctoides Radumeris radula (Yellow Hairy Flower Wasp) Radumeris tasmaniensis (Yellow Hairy Flower Wasp) Rhynchium superbum Sceliphron laetum Sphex Thynnid Wasps Tiphiidae Torymus Yellow and Black Wasp