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Pipe organ mud dauber

Trypoxylon politum

Photo by Geodialist
Published on Project Noah
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38.7577, -77.0984

Field Notes

Description:

Insect nests spotted on the underside of the observation tower at Huntley Meadows Park. The nests are made of mud. These nests were built by a type of wasp known as Pipe organ mud daubers. Notice the small spider that is shown in the upper-right part of the nest in Photo 2. Pipe organ mud daubers "...stock their nests with spiders, which serve as food for their offspring." Source Credit: Wikipedia

Habitat:

Huntley Meadows Park, a 1,425 acre wetland area in Fairfax County, Virginia USA. Related Resource: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/huntley/

Notes:

Copyright © 2013 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved. www.wsanford.com

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (2)

Thanks for the helpful comment, Jeffrey! I plan to revisit the nests during early summer to look for holes in the pipes indicating new wasps have emerged from sealed chambers within the pipes.
Its a Mud Dauber they build these chambers and stuff them full of spiders that they paralize for feeding the egg they lay in each chamber when it hatches

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