#chrysidid

[usgsbiml]

The Case of Excessive Wasp Bling.  OK, there is something about metallic insects that is so attractively unsubtle.  Even though I have several other pictures of Chrysidid wasps like this one, I can't help but have another taken.  So,  there you go.  Ponder while reveling in all this metallic armor, why be so conspicuous if your m.o. is to invade other wasp and bee nests?  At least to humans.  Perhaps it is just a thumbed nose, a statement of obvious inedibility.  Photo by Anders Croft.

[usgsbiml]

An aptly named Rubytail (Chrysura species) so pungently colored that I had to take its picture when I came across it in Laurence Packer's Lab.  If only this were a little larger an entire Kyrgyz tourism industry could be developed around just this one species.  Thanks to Alxndr Brg for the determination.

This group of always metallic and lovely wasps surreptitiously invades the nests of bees and wasps and lays its eggs in their nest and then the rubytail young gobble everything up!

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Photography Information: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-_yvIsucOY

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sam droege

[drhoz]

"The beautiful but deadly cuckoo jewel wasps, possibly Chrysis ignata? is actively seeking out solitary bee cells. When the unsuspecting solitary bee leaves her cell to provision it, or to find mud, these wasps sneak inside the cell and lay their own egg. The egg hatches not long afterwards and the larva then eats the bee egg and pollen that its mother had gathered for it. for more information visit www.nurturing-nature.co.uk"

[drhoz]

Video of Chrysidid - Cuckoo Wasp.

[iainyork]

                   chrysidid wasp.                                             photo by  nikola rahme on flickr