I found this tube and wondered which animal built it.
It is 2 cm long and has an entrance/exit hole on one side. The material seems to be sandy.
I assume it is for breeding purposes.
Before finding the tube, I saw an unfamiliar kind of wasp around (could also be a hornet), with very long black legs. However, I could not find a wasp or hornet that builds such tubes, so it could be unrelated.
Location is Germany.
My questions are: which organism built this structure and should I expect anything crawling out one day? Or is it unfinished, since the entrance isn't closed?
Answer
This is the nest of a Mud dauber, also known as Mud wasp. This was possibly made by a Black and Yellow Mud dauber based on the following information.
The nest of the black and yellow mud dauber is a simple, one-cell, urn-shaped nest. 1*
As for expecting something coming out of it? I doubt it, as the nests are sealed after depositing an egg.
After building a cell of the nest, the female wasp captures several spiders. The captured prey are stung and paralyzed before being placed in the nest (usually 6-15 per cell), and then a single egg is deposited on the prey within each cell. The wasp then seals the cell with a thick mud plug. 2*
Eventually, the hatching larva will eat the prey and emerge from the nest.
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