Mud Daubers - Architects of the Insect World

As I was carrying lilac bush trimmings to the brush area in my yard I stopped short to focus my eyes on something on the underside of a leave.  To my amazement, this is what I was seeing..
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It's a picture of the nest of a mud dauber wasp.  These wasps get their name because they construct their nest of mud.  There are several different types of mud daubers, each with a descriptive common name.
The owner of this nest is a potter wasp.  It's easy to see why! 

Mud daubers typically select a sheltered site to build their mud house.  Some favorite sites are under eaves, porch ceilings, in a garage or shed, and in attics.  The female makes many trips to get mud of the correct consistency, carrying it back to the site as tiny balls.  When the nest is ready the adult wasp  collects spiders, caterpillars, or beetle larvae and paralyzes them before putting them in the cell to serve as food for a "kid" (larvae)  that will hatch out shortly.   As a rule, the adult lays a single egg in the empty cell before provisioning it.  When the wasp larva hatches it eats the supplied prey... often taking a few weeks before pupateing.  The complete life cycle may last from a few weeks to more than a year!  So the wasps that I have seen this spring/early summer were eggs/caterpillars last year!  Wow!!!

  If you find a nest and it has a round hole in it that means the wasps have hatched out. It also means the nest is probably old and inactive.

                                  

                                                                 This beauty is a potter wasp...she's been "shopping" and will bring that caterpillar to her nest.  It's pretty amazing to see.  (My apologies since I do not remember where I found this picture.  As soon as I find the file I will repost, giving credit as due.) 

More amazing than the tiny pot on the leave was watching another mud dauber wasp create this nest...

First of all, this was made inside of a cooler that was missing the cover for the drain hole.  That is how she got inside to make the nest!!!  The cooler had been sitting on  picnic table near the driveway for a few weeks...sorry, I'm not great at putting things away!  :)  I had put some copper wire in to keep it out of the elements.  That's what is in the background and what she built the 'house' on.  I watched as she went in and out over the course of several days, carrying the bits of mud to the construction site.  LOOK at the colors and layers!  Isn't this amazing?!  I moved the cooler to a sheltered place in my backyard.  I am planning to move it into the unheated garage in a few weeks.  Inside the garage I can check on it every so often over the winter.  I am looking forward to observing the nest over the coming months.  Realistically speaking I will not see any changes in things until the spring, but that won't keep me from looking!   

Vocabulary
Mud Dauber - any of several wasps of the family Sphecidae that build a nest of mud cells and provision it with spiders or insects ( dictionary.com )

daub - to cover or smear with a sticky material (thefreedictionary.com/dauber )

Resources

http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/cimg334.html

This link is a part of the Texas A & M University site. The site is a wonderful resource for anything to do with insects. While the focus is on Texas, most of the creatures can be found in Massachusetts, too.

A very good, though more professionally oriented, resource.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWr66LEqav0

This is a YouTube video of a mud dauber making a nest. Simply amazing

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potter_wasp
  This is a great entry that provides accurate information and clear photos of wasps and nests.                                                                                                                                

Beautiful Beetles

Well, I am back after a very LOOONG time away. My apologies and a thank you to the person who e-mailed me to ask what was up. Family and work issues have been very difficult lately. The up side to this is I have some really amazing files/photos that I have continued to collect over these months. So here goes...

While weeding an area of a garden I was amazed to find this beetle. It was actually running away from me (go figure!), heading deeper into the leaf litter that surrounds the area in which I was working.  I have a deep appreciation for most living things, beetles included, so when this specimen ran into view I was very happy. I believe it is a female because of the size of the abdomen. 



In this first picture I tried to get an angle that would fully expose her abdomen without scaring her too much. Looks like a 'baby bump' to me! :)


I wanted to give an idea of the size of this creature so I took a photo with a quarter...for comparison.  "She" is pretty big! 

Would YOU find "her" a bit scary if  "she" scuttled across your path as
you weeded some flowers?

In attempting to identify what kind of beetle this was I went to some  favorite resources.  One is http://bugguide.net/node/view/15740.
In their own words..."We are an online community of naturalists who enjoy learning about and sharing our observations of insects, spiders, and other related creatures." 

This site has amazing photographs of so many creatures!!  From this site my specimen could be a darkling beetle  (Family Tenebrionidae).  These beetles  are typically found under stones, decaying logs, bark, on bracket fungi, or on the ground. A few species are found in the open. 
Many are scavengers of plant material as both adults and larvae. Some are attracted to carrion, dead insects, dung. Some feed on fungus, often found under bark.

Another resource that I have used is http://insects.about.com/.  This person has great resources, including a "bug of the week."  Teachers could use this feature as a challenging way to reinforce research skills.

Finally, check this site http://www.cipm.info/ent/biocontrol/goodbugs/groundbeetles.htm.  It's part of the North Carolina State University Department of Entomology.  There are some amazing photos and a positive take on insects as biological controls.
I learned from both of these sites that my specimen could be a ground beetle (Family carabidae)

From the insects.about.com site:  "Nearly all ground beetles prey on other invertebrates. Some Carabids are specialized predators, feeding exclusively on one type of prey. A few ground beetles feed on plants or seeds, and others are omnivores."

Sadly, I cannot identify this insect for certain.  Since I am not a trained entomologist, I find the minute detail and variations in each type of beetle make it difficult for me to make a positive identification.  While I am happy with narrowing it down as I have,  my next step is to contact somebody at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst Massachusetts.  Perhaps somebody there can assist with an identification.

Resources:
 http://www.ent.iastate.edu/

The Iowa State University Entomology Department homepage.  To the left on the page is a link to an insect identification section of the site.  While the site is focused on Iowa, the information/picures are a good resource.  Some of the "insect information notes" pages I checked had information on raising them.  It could be a fun activity for a class...


 Vocabulary:

Entomologist - a person who studies the branch of science concerned with insects

 Leaf litter -  consists of the dead leaves and other debris that fall to the floor of a forest.  It is a home for many living things.

Activity - Spread a sheet on the ground in a shaded area.  Have participants wear long pants and sit still around the edges of the sheet.  Carefully scoop some leaf litter and place it in the center of the sheet.  Everybody can watch/observe as the leader carefully searches the leaf litter for creatures that call it home.  Leader should be prepared to scoop creatures to safety if observers are nervous about them!  

Omnivore -  An animal whose normal diet includes both plants and animals. Human beings are omnivores.

Activity - Create an omnivore chart...include name, diet, and a picture of the animal where possible.  Alternately, have a student 'adopt' each animal to draw and investigate.