Hedychridium cupreum (Dahlbom, 1845)

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 : 37-38

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Chrysididae

Hedychridium cupreum (Dahlbom, 1845) Figs 69, 71

Hedychrum cupreum Dahlbom, 1845: 3.

Hedychrum integrum Dahlbom, 1854: 86, not (Dahlbom, 1829).

Hedychridium cupreum : Abeille de Perrin 1879: 39.

Diagnosis.

Length 4-5 mm. The species differs from other species of the genus by having very sparse punctation and smooth interstices between punctures on the mesoscutum and mesoscutellum (Fig. 69). The head and mesosoma are dorsally mainly coppery red or greenish (Fig. 69), whereas the metasoma is dorsally red-purple with blue-green reflections. The frons, anterior corners of pronotum, metanotum, propodeum, mesopleuron and tibiae are mainly green or blue. Compared to Hedychridium purpurascens , the metasomal pubescence is longer (Fig. 71) and the scapal basin has broader cross-ridging. S2 does not have a clearly delimited metallic spot medially.

Distribution.

Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden. Relatively common. - Trans-Palearctic: from western Europe to Japan, Mongolia and China ( Linsenmaier 1959, Kurzenko and Lelej 2007, Rosa et al. 2014).

Biology.

Habitat: sparsely vegetated sandy areas. Adults occasionally visit flowers of Asteraceae and Caryophyllaceae (our own obs.). Flight period: from early June to late August. Host: primarily Dryudella pinguis (Dahlbom) ( Else 1973, Schmid-Egger et al. 1995, Saure et al. 1998), but possibly also Dryudella stigma (Panzer), Harpactus lunatus (Dahlbom) and Harpactus tumidus (Panzer) ( Crabronidae ) ( Trautmann and Trautmann 1919, Lefeber 1976, Jacobs and Kornmilch 2007).