First evidence of wasp brood development inside active nests of a termite with the description of a previously unknown potter wasp species.

Potter wasps (Vespidae: Eumeninae) are known to exhibit not only sophisticated preying strategies but also a remarkable ability to manipulate clay during nest building. Due to a mixture of plasticity in building behavior and flexibility in substrate preferences during nest building, the group has been reported nesting in a variety of places, including decaying nests abandoned by termite species. Yet, evidence of wasps nesting inside senescent termite mounds is poorly reported, and to date, accounts confirming their presence inside active colonies of termites are absent.

Nonaggressive behavior: A strategy employed by an obligate nest invader to avoid conflict with its host species.

In addition to its builders, termite nests are known to house a variety of secondary opportunistic termite species so-called inquilines, but little is known about the mechanisms governing the maintenance of these symbioses. In a single nest, host and inquiline colonies are likely to engage in conflict due to nestmate discrimination, and an intriguing question is how both species cope with each other in the long term. Evasive behaviour has been suggested as one of the mechanisms reducing the frequency of host-inquiline encounters, yet, the confinement imposed by the nests' physical boundaries suggests that cohabiting species would eventually come across each other.