Mud Dauber Tube Cache

I bought a storage shed for the camp to keep odds and ends in and while setting up my ladder to do a little caulking I found the nest tube of a mud-dauber securely glued to the top step. I was moving the ladder in order to photograph the single tube when I bumped it on a corner of the shed and broke it open. Inside revealed what the dauber had stored for its future progeny. With a pair of tweezers I began delicately removing one spider after another. I was amazed at how many were crammed in such a small tube. I found 5 different species, 8 spiders in all. They're not dead but in fact paralyzed by the venom of the adult dauber so they'll stay fresh.

If you'll notice in the second picture there is a mud-dauber larva feeding on one of the spiders. Amazing....