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Chalybion is a genus of blue mud dauber wasps in the family Sphecidae. Chalybion species nest in a wide range of natural and artificial cavities such as holes in wood, walls, plant stems, etc., where they typically provision their brood cells with paralyzed spiders.
It often reforms nests of the Sceliphron camentarium (black and yellow mud dauber wasp) by removing the larva of the unwanted species from the cells and replacing it with one of its own. The Chalybion californicum will use water to soften the nest of the S. camentarium and remove the spiders that are hosting the unwanted mud dauber larva.
Chalybion californicum, the common blue mud dauber of North America, is a metallic blue species of mud dauber wasp first described by Henri Louis Frédéric de Saussure in 1867.
The blue mud dauber species Chalybion californicum, another sphecid, builds mud nests, but occasionally refurbishes the abandoned nests of other species; it preys primarily on spiders. [2] The two species commonly occupy the same barns, porches, or other nest sites.
17 lis 2022 · Learn about the blue mud dauber (Chalybion californicum) – its size, appearance, diet, habitat, range, nest building, life cycle, and does it sting.
Blue mud daubers move into the abandoned globular nests of the black and yellow mud dauber (Sceliphron caementarium). This common species is black with bright yellow markings on the legs, abdomen and thorax.
The mud dauber makes these nests for a good reason. Each one is filled with chambers, in which it will lay an egg, and for its offspring to feed when it hatches, it will provide a generous meal alongside the egg.
