Cuckoo Wasp

Description:

These wasps are often highly sculptured, with brilliantly colored metallic-like bodies. Cuckoo wasps lay their eggs in the nests of other hymenoptera, usually other solitary bees or wasps. Many are parasitic on bee or wasp larvae. I found this single specimen rummaging around on our patio. He seems to like our lemon tree because it brings other wasps.

Notes:

Chrysidines are distinguished from the members of other subfamilies in that most can curl into a defensive ball, in a process known as conglobation. This ability is shared with pill bugs, pill millipedes (which are often mistaken for pill bugs), and armadillos.