Chrysura hirsuta (Gerstaecker, 1869)

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 : 87-88

Taxon classification Animalia Hymenoptera Chrysididae

Chrysura hirsuta (Gerstaecker, 1869) Figs 202, 203, 208

Chrysis hirsuta Gerstaecker, 1869: 185.

Chrysis bicolor Dahlbom, 1829: 10, in part, not Lepeletier, 1806.

Chrysis Thomson, 1870: 106.

Chrysura hirsuta : Morgan 1984: 19.

Diagnosis.

Length 7-11 mm. The species resembles other similarly coloured species of Chrysura , but the metascutellum is flatter (not sharply elevated as in Chrysura trimaculata ), the punctation of the tergites is homogeneous and dense (Fig. 208) (not heterogeneous as in Chrysura radians ) and the mandible has a large subapical tooth (Fig. 202) (tooth lacking or small in Chrysis austriaca ). The head and mesosoma are dark green or blue, often with golden green reflections, whereas the metasoma is golden red or rarely golden greenish.

Distribution.

Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden. Relatively rare. - Trans-Palearctic: from western Europe to China, Korea and Japan ( Linsenmaier 1959, Rosa et al. 2014).

Biology.

Habitat: dry meadows, forest margins and clearings. Adults are often found flying near the ground, rocks or dead wood ( Linsenmaier 1959, 1997, Rosa 2006). Flight period: April to July. A female specimen, collected at the end of September in SW Finland, might belong to a second generation. Host: Osmia inermis (Zetterstedt), Osmia nigriventris (Zetterstedt), Osmia parietina Curtis, Osmia spinulosa (Kirby), Osmia uncinata Gerstaecker, and Hoplitis tuberculata (Nylander) ( Megachilidae ) ( Smith 1862, Trautmann 1918, Trautmann 1927, Morgan 1984, our own obs.). Host records mentioning bees of other genera, e.g. Chelostoma florisomne (Linnaeus) ( Megachilidae ) ( Frey-Gessner 1887), are questionable as supporting evidence is lacking.