You may know that I have been taking an interest and photographing the Heath Potter Wasps here in Devon. They are being studied in great detail by local naturalist John Walters who is the world's expert in this otherwise, un-researched and under-observed species. Here's a link to a short film that I made last week which describes the buidling of the pot. 

Below shows  the pot now sealed.

 This  pot was constructed on the 16th of August and the female wasp took more than a week to fill the pot and then seal it. The pot will contain  a single egg and 30 or so tiny anaethatised  caterpillars as food for the emerging wasp grub. This little clay capsule will remain sealed until May next year when the adult wasp will break out of the pot and as a newly emerged wasp the life-cycle will begin again.   As I explained previously, the pots are constructed from clay collected from small bare patches of earth called "quarries".  Previously, I hadn't photographed the clay being collected but on my short visit today, one of John's colour marked wasps was busy constructing a pot nearby and collecting clay.