Potter Wasp - Eumenes fraternus
Order Hymenoptera / Suborder Apocrita / Superfamily Vespoidea -- vespoid wasps / Family Vespidae -- hornets, paper wasps, potter wasps, yellowjackets
Live adult potter wasps photographed in the wild at Winfield, Illinois, USA.
 

The Potter wasp constructs nests of mud, or nest in burrows, cavities in twigs, or the abandoned nests of other wasps.  Adult potter wasps are commonly seen on the ground in open areas or at flowers.


Mud Pot Wasp Nest

Potter wasps are named for the nests they construct out of mud and water, and these can have one to multiple individual cells. When a cell is completed, the adult wasp typically collects beetle larvae, spiders or caterpillars and, paralyzing them, places them in the cell to serve as food for a single wasp larva. In a few species, the adult wasp lays a single egg in the opening of the cell, suspended from a thread of dried fluid. When the wasp larva hatches, it drops and immediately feeds upon the larvae, and later breaks out of the nest to begin its adult life. Adult potter wasps feed on plant nectar.