Podium luctuosum

Here's one of our thread-waisted wasps that lacks a common name, a Podium luctuosum. As an insect without a common name, it's not a wasp we encounter so often that anyone's come up with such a name. (Should we come up with a name? Maybe the Dark Cockroach Killer Wasp?)

Like a surprising number of wasps, they are parasitoids. The moms will paralyze certain cockroaches, lay eggs on them, and squirrel them away under tree bark or in tree cavities that she'll also cover with mud. The larva feed off the cockroach, ultimately killing it. (I don't think they use cockroaches you might find hiding under the refrigerator as hosts, in case you were thinking of befriending these wasps.)

Given where the wasp was found, I'm suspicious of a female looking for soil to "mud over" the nest she made for her egg and its host. My 2nd guess is that maybe this is the right habitat for finding the cockroaches she'll need for her eggs.

July 28, 2021 at Sourland Mountain Preserve
Photo 148654880, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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