Nest Characteristic Features and Prey Selection of Mud Dauber Wasp Sceliphron madraspatanum “Fabricius, 1781”

Abstract

Sphecid and Carbronid wasps construct the characteristic nests with unique architectural patterns to lay their eggs and nurture their larvae. The present investigation was carried out the nest characteristic features and prey selection of mud dauber wasp from the A.V.C. College campus from January to March 2019. It deals with nest characteristic features of the active and abandoned nest of mud dauber wasp, studies indicate that Sceliphron madraspatanum nests are built on bright surfaces that are covered against water and immediate sunlight. The nests' height from the ground was less than 2 feet, nest length was less than 5 cm and cell depth or width was less than 3 cm. The mean number of orifices and cells was 6.0 and the cell length range was measured from 2.25 to 1.92 cm. Nests' shape was a maximum rectangle and a few were irregular shapes. In active nests, mean height from the ground and orifices or cells were lesser than the inactive nests. Likewise, the nest length and depth of the cells or width, weight were higher than the inactive nests. A total of 24 larvae were isolated from the 20 cells and weighed around 3.15 g. Similarly, the feed was also isolated and tally as 153 paralyzed individuals which belong to order Araneae and weighed 17.27 g. It concluded that the nest of mud dauber wasp showed species-specific architecture and it feed the spiders of an agroecosystem. From this research, the wasp might be considered a beneficial insect for the agroecosystem.