An Encounter With A Growing Arabian Paper Wasp Hive Inside A Cave in Wadi Showkha

An Arabian Paper Wasp Nest being build inside a cave

Busy inside the cave attending to their growing nest

I was spelunking in the mountain caverns along the Wadi Showkha trail in my search for wild honey from Arabian Dwarf Honeybees hives when I came upon a wide and deep cavern. These wide and deep caverns serves not as safehouses for honeybees but also for foxes, desert owls and vipers. Amazingly and thankfully, I did not have an encounter with a resting fox inside its den or a viper. What I found inside was not my target sweet loot of fresh honey but a growing nest of Arabian Paper Wasps. They found the cool cave and established their colony inside!

ARABIAN PAPER WASPS, Polistes watii (HYMENOPTERA: VESPIDAE)  

Awesome creatures!  Awesome CREATOR! 

Thanks for your support and careful attention. 

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