Sand wasp

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Sand wasp
Sand wasp (Hedychrum nobile)

Sand wasp ( Hedychrum nobile )

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Hymenoptera (Hymenoptera)
Family : Gold wasps (Chrysididae)
Subfamily : Chrysidinae
Genre : Hedychrum
Type : Sand wasp
Scientific name
Hedychrum nobile
( Scopoli , 1763)

The sand gold wasp ( Hedychrum nobile ) is a species from the family of gold wasps (Chrysididae).

features

The sand wasps are 4 to 10 millimeters long and have a narrow and squat body. The head of the female is darkly hairy and green-blue, her thorax is colored red-gold in front and green or blue behind. It is rare to see specimens with a completely green thorax. The males have cusps on the terminal edge of the second sternite . Their pro and mesonotum is colored red. The abdomen of both sexes is red-gold, sometimes blue-green or purple in color. All colors have a metallic sheen. The tergite of the last abdominal segment is serrated on the side. The last tarsal link is forked at the tip, which certainly distinguishes the species from those of the genus Chrysis . The related species Hedychrum rutilans is difficult to distinguish from the sand wasp.

Similar species

Occurrence

The species occurs from North Africa across Europe to Siberia. It inhabits open, dry and warm sand and loess biotopes, steep walls and stony slopes with loose vegetation. It occurs widely and quite frequently in Central Europe. The flight time is from mid-June to September.

Way of life

The animals live parasitically on various nodular wasps ( Cerceris ), such as the sand nodule wasp ( Cerceris arenaria ), the bee-hunting nodular wasp ( Cerceris rybyensis ), Cerceris quinquefasciata , Cerceris ruficornis and Cerceris quadricincta . The adults of the sand wasp are often found near colonies of the sandknot wasp, otherwise on the flowers of umbellifers and rose plants .

supporting documents

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Heiko Bellmann : Bees, wasps, ants. Hymenoptera of Central Europe . Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co KG, Stuttgart 1995, p. 57 ff., ISBN 3-440-09690-4 .
  2. ↑ a b c Rolf Witt: Wasps. Observe, determine. Naturbuch-Verlag, Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-89440-243-1 .

Web links

Commons : Hedychrum nobile  - collection of images, videos and audio files