Day 23 - Oriental blue mud daubers

Oriental Mud-dauber Wasp (Chalybion bengalense) from Adyar, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India on July 12, 2025 at 04:59 PM by flowergirl_madras � iNaturalist

Metallic blue bodies

Brown wings

Spider paralysers 

Another amazing wasp world denizen.  They repurpose old mud nests, fill them with paralysed spiders, lay an egg, and then daub the hole/nest shut with a mixture of Lime from the wall (maybe) and saliva and plant material.  The spiders are larval food.

You will see these white spotted mud nests everywhere.  They love to fill our plug points - what nice natural cavities!  In a month or so, the wasps will be born and they live for 2 weeks or maybe even 4 weeks - if they are very lucky !