Chrysis graelsii Guerin-Meneville , 1842

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 : 59-60

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Chrysididae

Chrysis graelsii Guerin-Meneville, 1842

Chrysis Graelsii Guérin-Méneville, 1842: 148.

Chrysis Förster, 1853: 309.

Diagnosis.

Length 7-9 mm. The colouration is unique among North European chrysidids. The head and mesosoma are blue or greenish, and the mesoscutum is medially often dark blue or nearly black. The metasoma is dorsally red, but the apical rim of T3 is contrastingly blue.

Distribution.

Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania. Relatively rare. - West Palearctic: Europe and Asia Minor ( Linsenmaier 1959, 1968).

Biology.

Habitat: forest margins, clearings and gardens with sun-exposed dead wood. Adults are occasionally found on flowers of Apiaceae and Euphorbiaceae ( Poppius 1901, Heinrich 1964, Kunz 1994, Linsenmaier 1997). Flight period: late May to mid-August. Host: Euodynerus notatus (Jurine) ( Vespidae ) ( Herrmann 1996, Pärn et al. 2014, our own obs.), probably also Euodynerus quadrifasciatus (Fabricius) ( Saure 1998) and in Crimea Euodynerus disconotatus (Lichtenstein) ( Martynova and Fateryga 2015).