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FAMILY VESPIDAE, Eumeninae - Potter Wasps
This page contains pictures and information about the Potter Wasps that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Potter Wasp flying to her pot
Species in this family mostly large. Inner margins of their compound eyes usually emarginated. When rest, their fore wings often folded longitudinally, never folded horizontally.
- Potter Wasps build mud nest with jug shape. They are solitary wasps. They can be a variety of colours, typically black and yellow or black and orange. Potter wasps usually prey on caterpillars which they paralyze and place inside cells in their nests. Nests are either dug into the ground, constructed from mud, in wood, or in existing burrows of their hosts. Potter wasps rarely sting, however if stung symptoms are similar to bee stings which may cause serious allergic reactions in sensitive people. Potter Wasps are common around Brisbane.
- Yellow Potter Wasp
- Delta campaniforme, pot diameter 15mm, adult body length 22mm
- This Potter Wasps build mud nest with jug shape. They are solitary wasps. They are common around Brisbane. The wasps are dark brown in colour, with yellow banded abdomen. There is yellow pattern on their thorax. Their narrow waist is very long at the middle of their body. More information and pictures please click here.
- Brown Potter Wasp
- Delta sp., body length 18mm
- A Potter Wasp found a prey. It was a small caterpillar hiding in its shelter. The shelter was built by silk binding leaves together. The caterpillar seemed quite safe inside. However, after the wasp confirmed there was a caterpillar inside, the wasp cut open a small hole and stung the caterpillar. Then the wasp cut the leaves and got the caterpillar back to its 'Pot' as the food of her offspring.
- Orange Potter Wasp
- Eumenes latreilli, body length 20mm
- On early summer we saw this red-orange Potter Wasp picking up mud from the loose soil ground. We believed this wasp was collecting soils to build pot nest for its young. The wasp was bright orange red in colour with contrast black marking warning colour. There are more pictures and information in this page.
- Large Potter Wasp
- Abispa ephippium, body length 30mm
- This wasp is very large and with strong body. Its head, antenna and legs are orange-yellow. Its thorax is black with orange-yellow triangle shoulder. Its abdomen is segmented with orange-yellow and black. Large Potter Wasps are common in Brisbane. We often see them searching for caterpillars on leaves in gardens and bushes. They are solitary wasps and build mud pot-shaped nests in sheltered area. We had kept the nest and saw a wasp came out. More pictures and information please visit this page.
- Reference:
- 1. Insects of Australia, CSIRO, Division of Entomology, Melbourne University Press, 2nd Edition 1991, pp 979.
- 2. Insects of Australia and New Zealand - R. J. Tillyard, Angus & Robertson, Ltd, Sydney, 1926, p295.
