October 14th 2009, 8:00am
This morning when I went out I saw there was a small hole drilled neatly in one of the upper cells. During the building stages I had noticed a small wasp hovering around the area. I thought at the time it might be a parasitic wasp. Then on several occasions I would go out and find that one of the cells was open. I just assumed that the cap had fallen out. Next thing it was closed again. Now I know what happened. I may be wrong about this but I think it was a parasitic wasp and it was opening the cell to lay its own egg on one of the paralyzed spiders or on the egg in the nest. The cap of the cell came off easily when the mud was fresh but this one was pretty hard so it had to drill in. In fact it behaves like a cuckoo! Mud dauber does all the work.
Then when I came in later the hole was covered and the mud dauber was busy checking the whole of the structure. Isn't nature fascinating? Right on my doorstep!
This morning when I went out I saw there was a small hole drilled neatly in one of the upper cells. During the building stages I had noticed a small wasp hovering around the area. I thought at the time it might be a parasitic wasp. Then on several occasions I would go out and find that one of the cells was open. I just assumed that the cap had fallen out. Next thing it was closed again. Now I know what happened. I may be wrong about this but I think it was a parasitic wasp and it was opening the cell to lay its own egg on one of the paralyzed spiders or on the egg in the nest. The cap of the cell came off easily when the mud was fresh but this one was pretty hard so it had to drill in. In fact it behaves like a cuckoo! Mud dauber does all the work. October 14th 10:30 am
Then when I came in later the hole was covered and the mud dauber was busy checking the whole of the structure. Isn't nature fascinating? Right on my doorstep!
Great photos! Nature is amazing :)
ReplyDeleteThis is what I call entertainment.
ReplyDeleteFascinating! I didn't know there were 'cuckoo' wasp species. Thank you for watching instead of spraying, and telling all of us about it.
ReplyDelete