08/25/2025
Welcome back to “Moms Who Build Tiny Homes and Kidnap Caterpillars.” Today’s episode: the fraternal potter wasp.
This architectural icon crafts miniature mud pots using just soil and spit. Once the pot is complete, she lays a single egg inside. But that egg needs snacks. Live ones.
So, like any loving parent, she goes hunting for caterpillars. Once she finds one, she stings it in the head to paralyze it. Then she shoves the caterpillar into the pot, seals it up like Tupperware, and leaves.
Inside the pot, the baby hatches and eats the still-living caterpillar over the course of several days. The wasp larvae will undergo metamorphosis, transform into an adult, bust out of the pot and go on to create the next generation of mud pot arteests.
Photo by Michael Schramm/USFWS
