Blue gold wasp
| Blue gold wasp | ||||||||||||
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Blue gold wasp ( Trichrysis cyanea ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Trichrysis cyanea | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The blue gold wasp ( Trichrysis cyanea ), formerly Chrysis cyanea is a species from the family of gold wasps (Chrysididae).
features
The wasps reach a body length of 4 to 8 millimeters. Their bodies are completely blue-green metallic in color, males are often partly black. The anal rim is three-toothed. The first tergite has a smooth central furrow. The species is easy to distinguish from the other species of the genus Chrysis , some of which are difficult to distinguish.
Occurrence
The species occurs in the entire Palearctic , with the exception of Japan . They colonize a wide variety of habitats in which their host animals also live. The animals fly in several generations from May to October. They are common in Central Europe.
Way of life
Trichrysis cyanea parasitizes mainly on digger wasps of the Trypoxylon figulus and Trypoxylon attenuatum groups . Corridors with diameters between three and six millimeters are settled. The female lays her egg at different times during nest building, but mostly while the host is collecting material for the construction of the cell. It can happen that female golden wasps fight for the nest near the nest entrance, using the teeth on the anal edge as weapons. This means that up to four golden wasp eggs can sometimes be detected in the nest. The larvae that hatch from this initially fight each other, the remaining one then eats the host egg or the host larvae that have already hatched. The larva of Trichrysis cyanea is easy to recognize by its gray-green body and the light-colored head and abdomen end. In the following five days, the larva feeds on the food supply of the host larvae brought in as spiders, leaving their legs untouched. Pupation takes place in a golden brown, shiny cocoon , which is attached to the cell wall with a frill at the front and tapers towards the back. The development up to hatching of the imago is extremely rapid at 17 to 23 days. It usually hibernates as a larva, although it can happen that these remain for another year. Hatching occurs exactly a few days before the host species' adults hatch. In nests with a small diameter, a Trichrysis cyanea image, which has developed further back in the nest, may destroy cells in front of it with both hosts and conspecifics when hatching.
supporting documents
literature
- Rolf Witt: Wasps. Observe, determine. Naturbuch-Verlag, Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-89440-243-1 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Rolf Witt: Wasps. Observe, determine. Naturbuch-Verlag, Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-89440-243-1 .
