← back to grid
Cuckoo Wasp

uncommon

Cuckoo Wasp

Chrysis ignita

Habitat
Worldwide in temperate regions, near other wasp nests
Body length
12 mm
Order
Hymenoptera · Chrysididae

Weird but real

Lays its eggs in other wasps' nests, where its young eat the host's young. Hence 'cuckoo'.

Why it's cool

A walking chrome-rainbow gemstone with one of the most metallic body finishes in nature, plus a parasitic dark side.

Photographs

Figure 9 The ruby-tailed cuckoo wasp Chrysis ignita (Linnaeus, 1758) in lateral view.
Javier Torrent · CC BY 4.0 · source
Peterborough - UK
Nikk from Peterborough, UK · CC BY 2.0 · source