Chrysis rutilans Olivier, 1791

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 : 58

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Chrysididae

Chrysis rutilans Olivier, 1791 Fig. 94

Chrysis rutilans Olivier, 1791: 676.

Chrysis splendidula of authors, not Rossi, 1790.

Chrysis insperata ? Chevrier, 1870: 265.

Diagnosis.

Length 5-9 mm. The species resembles Chrysis splendidula in colouration, but the body is more slender and the punctation of T2 is finer (Fig. 94). Also, T2 does not have a distinct smooth longitudinal keel or a raised posterior margin (Fig. 94). The black spots of S2 are longer and the head is narrower than in Chrysis splendidula .

Distribution.

Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden. Relatively rare. - Trans-Palearctic: from Europe and northern Africa to China and Japan ( Linsenmaier 1997, Rosa et al. 2014). In eastern Asia represented by ssp. extranea Linsenmaier, 1959 ( Rosa et al. 2014).

Biology.

Habitat: sparsely vegetated sandy areas, forest margins. Flight period: early June to late August. Adults are occasionally found on flowers of Apiaceae and Euphorbiaceae ( Heinrich 1964, Linsenmaier 1997, Rosa 2006). Host: Gymnomerus laevipes (Shuckard), Ancistrocerus Wesmael and Katamenes flavigularis ( Blüthgen) ( Vespidae ) ( Martynova and Fateryga 2015), possibly also species of Microdynerus Thomson ( Tischendorf 1998) and Stenodynerus Saussure (our own obs.) ( Vespidae ), based on their similar habitat preferences and body proportions with Chrysis rutilans . Older published host records of Chrysis rutilans may concern Chrysis splendidula and vice versa.

Remarks.

The status of the closely related species Chrysis insperata is still uncertain. It is difficult to separate from Chrysis rutilans , and Kunz (1994) and several subsequent authors consider Chrysis insperata as a nomen dubium. However, some authors (e.g. Linsenmaier 1959, 1997, Rosa 2006, Strumia 1995, 2005) considered both Chrysis insperata and Chrysis rutilans as valid species. Mitochondrial DNA sequences available at the Barcode of Life Data System ( Ratnasingham and Hebert 2007) suggest that probably only one species is present in the Nordic countries.