Chrysis smaragdula Christ, 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 : 80

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Chrysididae

Chrysis smaragdula Christ, 1791 Fig. 81

Chrysis sexdentata Christ, 1791: 404.

Diagnosis.

Length 7-11 mm. The species is easily recognised due to its unique combination of a red metasoma and six apical teeth. The head and the mesosoma are greenish, dark blue or nearly black with coppery reflections, whereas the metasoma is dorsally purple-red or coppery red. The tergites are coarsely punctured, and the posterior margin of T3 has six sharp teeth (Fig. 81). The shape of the body is robust and compact.

Distribution.

Latvia. Very rare. Only one male specimen is known from central Latvia ( Ropaži, 1.VI.1961, leg. V. Tumšs) ( Tumšs and Maršakovs 1970). - Trans-Palearctic: from Europe and northern Africa to western and central Asia ( Linsenmaier 1959, 1999).

Biology.

Habitat: gardens with dead wood, old brick walls, old fences and/or stones ( Trautmann 1927, 1930). Adults occasionally visit flowers of Apiaceae and Euphorbiaceae ( Linsenmaier 1997, Rosa 2004). Flight period: June to July. Host: Euodynerus dantici (Rossi) ( Martynova and Fateryga 2015) and possibly also Ancistrocerus parietum (Linnaeus) ( Vespidae ) ( Mocsáry 1912, Berland and Bernard 1938). Host records implicating solitary bees (e.g. Osmia brevicornis (Fabricius), Osmia caerulescens (Linnaeus), Hoplitis adunca (Panzer) and Megachile sicula (Rossi)) ( Trautmann 1927) are dubious, as pointed out by Kunz (1994).