Chrysis viridula Linnaeus, 1761

Paukkunen, Juho, Berg, Alexander, Soon, Villu, Odegaard, Frode & Rosa, Paolo, 2015, An illustrated key to the cuckoo wasps (Hymenoptera, Chrysididae) of the Nordic and Baltic countries, with description of a new species, ZooKeys 548, pp. 1-116 : 59

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Chrysididae

Chrysis viridula Linnaeus, 1761 Figs 79, 166

Chrysis viridula Linnaeus, 1761: 415.

Chrysis bidentata Linnaeus, 1767: 947.

Diagnosis.

Length 6-9 mm. The species is easy to recognise due to its distinctive colouration: the head, lateral and ventral parts of the mesosoma (including legs) and T3 are green, blue or violet, whereas the dorsal parts of the mesosoma, most of T1 and the entire T2 are red. The setae medially on the metatibia are longer than the tibial width (shorter in Chrysis pulcherrima ). The apical teeth of T3 are often shallow and indistinct (Fig. 79).

Distribution.

Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden. Common. - Trans-Palearctic: from western Europe to Russian Far East, Korea, China and Japan ( Linsenmaier 1997, Kurzenko and Lelej 2007, Rosa et al. 2014).

Biology.

Habitat: sparsely vegetated areas with clay or sandy soil, gardens. Adults occasionally visit flowers of Apiaceae ( Linsenmaier 1997, Rosa 2004, our own obs.). Flight period: early June to late August. Host: Odynerus spinipes (Linnaeus), Odynerus reniformis (Gmelin) and Odynerus melanocephalus (Gmelin) ( Vespidae ) (Perez in Abeille de Perrin 1878, Adlerz 1910, Morgan 1984, our own obs.). The female oviposits in the host nest only when the host larva has completed its growth ( Rosa 2006).