Global InformationOrgan pipe mud dauber information
| Organ pipe mud dauber | |
|---|---|
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| Organ pipe mud dauber with a spider, Woodbridge, Virginia | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Crabronidae |
| Genus: | Trypoxylon |
| Species: | T. politum
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| Binomial name | |
| Trypoxylon politum Drury, 1773
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The organ pipe mud dauber (Trypoxylon politum) is a predatory wasp in the family Crabronidae. It is fairly large, ranging from 3.9–5.1 cm, and has been recorded to fly from May to September. Females and males are similar in colour, a shiny black, with the end part of the back leg being pale yellow to white.[1] The organ pipe mud dauber feeds mainly on three genera of spider: Neoscona, Araneus, and Eustala.[2] Melittobia, a parasitoid wasp, is a common ectoparasite of T. politum prepupae.[3] Other sources of parasitism include the bombyliid fly Anthrax, chrysidid wasps, and various species of scavenger flies (Miltogramminae).[4] The tufted titmouse (Parus bicolor) is a known predator of T. politum, and may feed on them more commonly than previously thought, as the holes made by the titmouse are similar in shape and size to those made by T. politum leaving the nest after pupation.[5]
Organ pipe mud daubers are also an exceedingly docile species of wasp, and generally beneficial to have around, as they serve to keep spider populations down; larvae feed on living paralyzed spiders. [6]
- ^ Coville, Rollin E. (January 1981). Coville. R. V. (1982). Wasps of the Genus Trypoxylon Subgenus Trypargilum in North America. University of California Publications in Entomology, 97, p.40-43. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520096516.
{{cite book}}:|website=ignored (help) - ^ "Rehnberg, B.G. (1987). Selection of spider prey by Trypoxylon politum (Say) (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae). Canadian Entomologist, 119, p.189-194".
- ^ "Torres, C. S. A. S. (2004). Host location by Melittobia digitata Dahms (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae), a larval parasitoid of mud daubers, Trypoxylon politum Say (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae). University of Georgia Theses and Dissertations".
- ^ "MOLUMBY, A. (1995), Dynamics of parasitism in the organ‐pipe wasp, Trypoxylon politurn: effects of spatial scale on parasitoid functional response. Ecological Entomology, 20: 159-168. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2311.1995.tb00442.x".
- ^ Coward, Stuart J.; Matthews, Robert W. (1995). "S. J. Coward. & R. W. Matthews. (1995). Tufted Titmouse (Parus bicolor) Predation on Mud-Dauber Wasp Prepupae (Trypoxylon politum). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society, 68, p. 371-373". Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society. 68 (3): 371–373. JSTOR 25085605.
- ^ Cross, Earle A.; Mostafa, Amal E.-S.; Bauman, Thomas R.; Lancaster, Iva J. (1 October 1978). "Some Aspects of Energy Transfer Between the Organ-Pipe Mud-Dauber Trypoxylon politum and Its Araneid Spider Prey 1". Environmental Entomology. 7 (5): 647–652. doi:10.1093/ee/7.5.647.