Visitors and nature's Architects

I have visitors in my garden all the time, butterflies and bees are always around. nonetheless these are just visitors who sometimes leave some destructive gifts behind, like a bunch of caterpillars. This is a normal occurrence in my garden.

However, there are also permanent residents like these praying mantis. These guys never seem to go away, not that I even tried to chase them away. They are my friends in the garden. They take care of the other pests in the garden. They reduce my battles by half.

Nonetheless, today I wanted to show you something new that is happening in my garden. The hoyas are done blooming so I guess I wasn't paying them too much attention other than watering them a few times a week. I noticed that the vine has had some sudden yellowing of leaves. This hasn't happened in the last five years I've had this vine. Like all things old maybe this hoya was dropping of its leaves I assumed. Yet there was this small niggle within to check the roots and then I discovered that I had a new tenant in my garden.

I thought it was a dragonfly at first as I noticed only its tail and wings. On closer inspection I realized that it was a potter wasp. I am kind of cautious with wasps as my husband has been stung by these terrors a couple of times. I approached this one cautiously and grabbed a few shots before it flew away.

Watching this creature bring out clay from maybe one of my unused garden pots and building its nest was a new experience for me. The way it polished the clay with its feet was a something I have never seen before.

The nest is shaped like a round bellied pot about half an inch in diameter, very similar to the other wasp nests I have seen on other creepers in my garden. While I watched this I was also afraid that it could hurt me as I was way too close to the critter. If it flew upward it would hit my face, side ways to the right it could hit my body, the only way it had to fly was in the opposite direction as the wall was to the left. I just hoped that I won't get hurt in the process.

The wasp flew away after a couple of minutes of work on the nest. I waited for a while, but I did see it come back. Then I got busy with stuff and forgot all about the wasp. I will try to record the progress tomorrow if I remember to do so.

I looked up the images on Google lens and it showed me the regular wasps. I had to keep on searching with descriptions of the critter to figure out what it actually was. I figured that this is called the Phimenes flavopictus, there is not much information about this species other than its South Asian habitat source . I hope that this wasp doesn't hurt humans as this is the narrow passage to my pergola. I go there a hundred times a day to hang around with the plants in my hanging garden.

This is the nest, I initially thought that the nest was shaped like a round bellied pot, but there was this little toe like extension below the structure. Like a secret vault for her eggs or something, I am not sure. My curiosity is aroused. I hope to watch this critter a little more carefully tomorrow and perhaps get a video of the activity there.

If you take a closer look at this nest you will find a new layer of clay around the neck of the pot laid in an arc. You would also see the feet of this critter shaping the fresh, wet, slimy clay. What a work of art! what great architects of nature!

Sadly this space is covered with a lush growth of the hoya leaves. I hope to remove a couple of leaves to track the activity. Have you seen these critters before? Please respond in the comment section, I am curious.

Thanks for swinging by, these guys swung by my terrace garden this afternoon. I guess the family of the grasshopper is one of the permanent residents in this place.

Have a great day!