Chrysis iris 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 : 61

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Chrysididae

Chrysis iris Christ, 1791 Fig. 83

Chrysis iris Christ, 1791: 405.

Chrysis nitidula of authors, not Fabricius, 1775.

Chrysis soluta Dahlbom, 1854: 217.

Chrysis purpurata of authors, not Fabricius, 1787.

Diagnosis.

Length 7-13 mm. The body is mostly blue or blue-green, resembling Chrysis indigotea in colouration. The female often has green-golden reflections on the mesoscutum, mesoscutellum and anteriorly on the pronotum. The tergites are posteriorly lighter blue than anteriorly. Compared to Chrysis indigotea , the punctation of the mesoscutum is sparser and the interstices larger, the mesoscutum is medially not distinctly darker than laterally, and the ovipositor is narrower (as in Fig. 92). The black spots of S2 are also larger and the apical teeth of T3 shorter and blunter.

Distribution.

Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden. Relatively rare. - West Palearctic: Europe ( Linsenmaier 1997).

Biology.

Habitat: forest margins, clearings and gardens with sun-exposed dead wood. Adults are usually found on walls of old log buildings (barns, sheds etc.), log piles, poles and dead tree trunks (e.g. Populus , Salix , Betula ). Flight period: late May to late August. Host: Symmorphus allobrogus (Saussure), Symmorphus crassicornis (Panzer) and Symmorphus murarius (Linnaeus) ( Vespidae ) ( Abeille de Perrin 1878, du Buysson 1895, Pärn et al. 2014, our own obs.).