Blue mud dauber
Blue mud dauber | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Hymenoptera |
Family: | Sphecidae |
Genus: | Chalybion |
Species: | C. californicum |
Binomial name | |
Chalybion californicum (Saussure, 1867) [1] | |
Synonyms [1] | |
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The blue mud dauber (Chalybion californicum) is a metallic blue species of mud dauber wasp that is the primary predator of black widow spiders.[2] It does not build its own nests, but uses nests abandoned by other mud dauber wasps. It is not normally aggressive.[2] It is similar in shape and colour to the steel-blue cricket hunter (Chlorion aerarium). Like other types of wasps, males do not have an ovipositor, therefore cannot sting.
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chalybion californicum. |
- 1 2 M. C. Day (1979). "The species of Hymenoptera described by Linnaeus in the genera Sphex, Chrysis, Vespa, Apis and Mutilla". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 12 (1): 45–84. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.1979.tb00049.x.
- 1 2 B. M. Drees & J. Jackman (1999). "Mud Daubers". Field Guide to Texas Insects. Texas A&M University.
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