Blue mud dauber

The blue mud dauber (Chalybion californicum) is a metallic blue species of mud dauber wasp first described by Henri Louis Frédéric de Saussure in 1867. It is the primary predator of black widow spiders.[2] Females build their own nests, but occasionally refurbish nests abandoned by other mud dauber wasps, particularly Sceliphron.[3] It is not normally aggressive.[2] It is similar in shape and colour to the steel-blue cricket hunter (Chlorion aerarium). Like other types of wasps, males do not have an ovipositor, and therefore cannot sting.

Blue mud dauber
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Sphecidae
Genus:	Chalybion
Species:	C. californicum
Binomial name
Chalybion californicum (Saussure, 1867) [1]
Synonyms [1]
Pelopeus californicus Saussure, 1867 Sphex caeruleus Linnaeus, 1763 Sphex cyaneus Fabricius, 1775

References

1. Day, M. C. (1979). "The species of Hymenoptera described by Linnaeus in the genera Sphex, Chrysis, Vespa, Apis and Mutilla". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 12 (1): 45–84. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.1979.tb00049.x.
2. Drees, Bastiaan M. & Jackman, John A. (1999). "Mud Daubers". Field Guide to Texas Insects. Gulf Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-87719-263-3. Archived from the original on 12 July 2007. Retrieved 10 July 2007.
3. "Species Chalybion californicum – Blue Mud Wasp". BugGuide. Department of Entomology, Iowa State University. 10 June 2017. Retrieved 1 July 2017.