Chrysis schencki Linsenmaier, 1968

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 : 70

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Chrysididae

Chrysis schencki Linsenmaier, 1968 Figs 131, 143, 148, 176

Chrysis ignita ssp. schenckiana Linsenmaier, 1959: 156, not Mocsáry, 1912.

Chrysis ignita ssp. schencki Linsenmaier, 1968: 99, replacement name for schenckiana Linsenmaier, 1959.

Chrysis schencki : Erlandsson 1971: 88.

Diagnosis.

Length 6-10 mm. The head and mesosoma are dorsally dark blue, violet or nearly black, and the punctures of the mesoscutum are usually of the same colour as the interstices. The tergites are golden red and the sternites variably golden or greenish (Fig. 131). The punctation of T3 is often characteristically dense and homogeneous. The body shape is more elongate than in Chrysis ignita , Chrysis impressa and Chrysis borealis sp. n., but not as slender as in Chrysis angustula and Chrysis leptomandibularis . Females are usually best distinguished from other species of the Chrysis ignita group by their thin and basally concave mandible (Fig. 143), though males are more difficult to identify. Compared to Chrysis impressa and Chrysis borealis sp. n., the mandible of male is slightly thinner and basally more concave (Fig. 148), the body is more slender, and the relative length of F1 to F2 is somewhat smaller (Fig. 176). Identification of the males is not always possible with certainty by morphological characters alone.

Distribution.

Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden. Common. - Trans-Palearctic: from western Europe to central Asia, Siberia and Japan ( Linsenmaier 1997).

Biology.

Habitat: forest margins, clearings and gardens with sun-exposed dead wood. Adults fly near sun-exposed dead tree trunks (e.g. Betula , Populus , Quercus ), and near walls of wooden buildings (e.g. log barns, sheds), poles and log piles. Flight period: late May to September. Host: Ancistrocerus trifasciatus ( Müller) ( Vespidae ) ( Pärn et al. 2014, our own obs.). Possibly also Ancistrocerus gazella (Panzer) and Ancistrocerus nigricornis (Curtis) ( Schneider 1991).

Remarks.

Recent mitochondrial DNA studies have shown that Chrysis schencki consists of two distinct and sympatric genetic lineages in northern Europe ( Soon et al. 2014). It is possible that they represent two different species, but more morphological and molecular studies are needed.