Image Credit: Jimmy Smith
Mud-dauber wasps (Sphecidae: Sceliphronini, Trypoxylonini & Miscophini) – predators upon predators – Several solitary wasps attack spiders and provision their offspring with the paralyzed prey. The metallic blue Chalybion and the yellow-legged Sceliphron are related mud-daubers recognized by their giant size and their long narrow “wasp-waists”; Trypoxylon are called organ-pipe mud-daubers, are moderate- to tiny-sized and have laterally flattened abdomens. The sand-wasp Miscophus also is a specialist predator on spiders.
The mud-daubers Sceliphron (left) and Chalybion (right are in the top row; note their extremely long and thin “wasp-waists”. Both Miscophus and Trypoxylon are nearly unique amongst wasps and bees by having only 1 submarginal cell.