Weird creature in hive

[JohnRB]

A friend has found this living in a few colonies. Any ideas?

 

[Sutty]

Can your friend get a shot in focus? It's hard to make out.

 

[Anduril]

Sceliphron: black mud-dauber wasps

 

[Vanterrier]

https://images.app.goo.gl/thKCUD1N3Ky9XbFWA

 

[JohnRB]

Many thanks. Problem solved

 

[Gilberdyke John]

A friend has found this living in a few colonies. Any ideas?

Is this indigenous to the UK?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

looks like something I often saw in Tanzania
Mud dauber wasp - found in a few countries around the world

 

[Michael Palmer]

Have you opened any of the chambers? Here these wasps prey is spiders.
Each chamber has a number of paralyzed spiders with a wasp larva. Hence,
the wasps are also referred to as being "Spider Wasps".

 

[JohnRB]

Have you opened any of the chambers? Here these wasps prey is spiders.
Each chamber has a number of paralyzed spiders with a wasp larva. Hence,
the wasps are also referred to as being "Spider Wasps".

Thanks for that. I don't have access anymore - they brought this sample along to our honey show yesterday looking for information. The nest/colony was in the top corner of a Nuc, but they had found them in a few colonies. We are in the South of England near Oxford. I've never seen anyone else with them so presume they are quite unusual (or it's unusual to find them in colonies). I'll pass all this on and get them to open one up and have a look.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Is this a spider?

 

[philat98]

I find similar cells under the lids of my hives in Italy. They are usually cream and in neat rows. I always remove them because I thought they were predating the bees. I have seen them at the base of pylons too on metal plates protected from the sun and rain.