Hedychridium ardens (Coquebert, 1801)

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 : 34-35

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Chrysididae

Hedychridium ardens (Coquebert, 1801) Figs 8, 66, 67

Chrysis ardens Coquebert, 1801: 59.

Hedychrum minutum Lepeletier, 1806: 122.

Chrysis integra Dahlbom, 1829: 17, not Fabricius, 1787.

Hedychridium ardens : Frey-Gessner 1887: 40.

Diagnosis.

Length 3-5 mm. Both sexes have coppery red colour dorsally on the head, pronotum, mesoscutum, mesoscutellum and metasoma, whereas the frons, anterior corners of pronotum, metanotum, tibiae and apex of the metasoma are mainly greenish (Fig. 66). The propodeum and the mesopleuron are usually blue. The punctation of the mesoscutum (Fig. 67) is denser than in Hedychridium cupreum and Hedychridium purpurascens , but not as dense as in Hedychridium coriaceum . Small males are sometimes greenish all over with only weak coppery reflections dorsally, and can be confused with Hedychridium zelleri . The punctation of the mesoscutum is however sparser and coarser than in Hedychridium zelleri .

Distribution.

Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden. Common. - Trans-Palearctic: Europe, Mongolia, Russian Far East ( Kimsey and Bohart 1991, Linsenmaier 1997, Kurzenko and Lelej 2007).

Biology.

Habitat: sparsely vegetated sandy areas, dunes, dry meadows. Adults visit flowers of Apiaceae , Asteraceae , Crassulaceae , Euphorbiaceae and Rosaceae ( Molitor 1935, our own obs.). Flight period: late May to late August. Host: Diodontus tristis (Vander Linden), Oxybelus bipunctatus Olivier, Tachysphex nitidus (Spinola), Tachysphex obscuripennis (Schenck) and Tachysphex pompiliformis (Panzer) ( Crabronidae ) ( Trautmann 1927, Berland and Bernard 1938, Benno 1950, Else 1973, Kofler 1975, Morgan 1984, van der Smissen 2001).