Diario de lizch

My bee house, up since 2017* hosts Euodynerus apopkensis, mason wasps that are "quite uncommon" and endemic (only found in) to Florida! This brood emerged around February 24, 2022. There were at least 50 wasps buzzing around the house that day. Lots of mating was happening--some of the couples fell to the ground from the house. It's settled down now a bit. There's still a lot of activity with the females gathering small caterpillars to provision their nests. They've been mining sand from the neighbor's (Joy) shell pile and using it to the build the cells. Many of the cell caps are bright white with fossil shell sand.

The person who figured this out is Matthias Buck, the Assistant Curator of Invertebrate Zoology at the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton, Alberta. For years, other identifiers and I thought they were Red-marked Pachodynerus Wasps. But Matthias noted the red spot behind the compound eye, which led it to the new ID! Brush-with-Fame Alert: Heather Holm, the author of A Guide for Eastern North America Wasps, weighed in on some of these observations.

SOOOO glad I have a macro lens. It worked great to get identifiable shots of the wasps.

I don't think they have a common name. If I could create one, here are some to consider. Lake Rhonda Mason Wasp? Childress Bee-house Mason Wasp? Excellent Mason Wasp (nod to the common names of moths)?

*I'm not sure how to get these wasps to move out of the house--the house is getting old and I'd hate to have them spread disease or mites to each other.