Hedychridium coriaceum (Dahlbom, 1854)

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 : 36-37

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Chrysididae

Hedychridium coriaceum (Dahlbom, 1854) Fig. 68

Hedychrum coriaceum Dahlbom, 1854: 88.

Hedychridium coriaceum : du Buysson (in André) 1892: 195.

Diagnosis.

Length 3-5 mm. The species is characterised by the very dense and fine punctation of the pronotum and mesoscutum, whereby the surface appears completely dull (Fig. 68). The mesoscutellum also has dense punctation and rugae between the punctures (Fig. 68). In Hedychridium ardens , Hedychridium cupreum and Hedychridium purpurascens the punctation is sparser and the surface shinier. The colour of the vertex, pronotum, mesoscutum and mesoscutellum is brownish red (Fig. 68). The frons, anterior corners of pronotum, metanotum, propodeum, mesopleuron and tibiae are mainly green or blue. The metasoma is coppery red or sometimes greenish.

Distribution.

Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden. Relatively rare. - Trans-Palearctic: from Europe and northern Africa to China ( Linsenmaier 1959, Rosa et al. 2014). (In northern Africa represented by ssp. jendoubense Linsenmaier, 1987).

Biology.

Habitat: sparsely vegetated sandy areas. Adults visit flowers of Asteraceae , Euphorbiaceae and Rosaceae ( Heinrich 1964, Hoop 1971, Linsenmaier 1997, Rosa 2004, our own obs.). Flight period: early June to late August. Host: Lindenius albilabris (Fabricius) ( Crabronidae ) ( Arnold 1908, 1910, Mortimer 1913, Morgan 1984, Tischendorf 1998) and possibly also Oxybelus uniglumis (Linnaeus) ( Alfken 1915).