cuckoo wasp

Description:

Body metallic blue or green, usually with coarse sculpturing (many pits in surface) Antennae with 12 segments (females) or 13 segments (males), two to six (usually three) of them visible and concave or hollowed out beneaath Rear corners of thorax pointed. Tip of abdomen in many species has tooth-like projections Hindwings with no closed cells. Abdomen concave beneath, allowing chrysidids to curl up into a ball when disturbed.

Habitat:

Throughout North America. Worldwide, chrysidids are distributed in all the zoogeographic Regions, except for the Antarctica.

Notes:

The female sting has been modified into an egg-laying tube with highly reduced valvulae and poison gland. As a result, unlike most other aculeates, chrysidids cannot sting and can be easily handled.