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Chrysididae
Brightly colored wasp. Size is about 10mm. These insects are aptly called Cuckoo wasps because just like a female Cuckoo, these wasps break into other wasp's nest, especially the mud dauber wasp's and lay eggs on the developing larvae. The hatched larvae feed on the now doomed larvae and comes out fully developed.
Flew into my apartment at the 8th floor!!
Spotted on Mar 8, 2018
Submitted on Mar 8, 2018
13 Comments
Thank you Dawn Lopez..
That's a cool find!
Thank you Jim..
Great photography, and nice spotting...well deserved, Sunny!
Thank you Project Noah and Danielle for selecting this as SOTD.. and the link you shared about the irridescent coloration is really great!
Thank you Jamie, Antonio and Mark for your comments...
Magnificent. Congrats.
Congrats Sunny on the STOD,beautiful spotting,great shots
How lucky to have this beauty fly into your apartment Sunny! You seem to be able to get some of your most interesting spottings without even leaving home :-) Congratulations, this beautiful Cuckoo wasp is our Spotting of the Day:
"This magnificent Cuckoo wasp (family Chrysididae) is our Spotting of the Day! Also known as emerald wasps, chrysidid wasps are known for their brilliant metallic colors created by structural coloration, where color is produced by microscopically structured surfaces fine enough to interfere with visible light. The function of these bright colorations in chrysidid wasps is not entirely understood. The colors might represent an aposematic signal to deter predators, or might signal indigestibility, or might just be an epiphenomenon resulting from the structure of the wasp's cuticle.
Learn more about the underlying color mechanism in chrysidid wasps: https://buff.ly/2Ifs8KG "
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Your welcome, sunnyjosef....
Thank you maplemoth..
Amazing...
An absolutely stunning photo....