Chrysis.net Forum

Pics taken today at Juslibol, Zaragoza, NE Spain, 200 meters over sea, dry gypsy steppes, on flowers of Euphorbia serrata. Chrysidid measures about 10-11 millimeters.
Please help ID!
Thanks!

Hi Isidro,

I would say Chrysura refulgens (Spinola)
nice and large species!

Ciao!

Thanks a lot Paolo! Yes it was fairly large In the very same plant of Euphorbia I've found other two Chrysididae! But without photos One was a bit smaller and th the last abdominal terguite blue, abdomen red and head and thorax blue. But I took only a frontal photo where the abdomen cannot be seen and it flew away And the other was spectacular! Much smaller (maybe 6-7 mm) and totally blue-green, similar to Trichrysis cyanea. But the wind was shaking the plant and I cannot take a decent image of it, only blurry ones before it flew away

Sure is an impressive specimen! I'm from Belgium, which doesn't really have the same climate as Spain, and when I saw one of these for the first time on a professional trip, I thought that global warming had gone mad and that some crazy tropical insects from the African jungle had arrived all the way to Spain thanks for the identification and detailed pictures, I'll go to bed smarter than when I left it!

Oliver !

Thanks! That forum is fascinating, I think I'll stay for a while!

Chrysura refulgens is a "common" Chrysidid in mediterranean area.
The species is a parasite of big Anthidiini as Rodanthidium septemdentatum (common species) which nest in snails shells, often in calcarous area (garrigue, villages...).

Jérôme

Merci pour l'explication, je ne savais pas qu'elles pouvaient vivre dans les coquilles d'escargots!

Thanks for the explanation, I didn't know they could nest in snail shells!

Some Chrysididae are cleptoparasits of Megachilidae (Osmiini) which nesting in snails shells :
Chrysura cuprea, dichroa, trimaculata rufiventris -> Osmia rufohirta, bicolor, aurulenta, (spinulosa ? ).

Some Eumeninae (Leptochilus duplicatus, Euodynerus spp) are nesting in shells too, but I don't know if Chrysidids parasits their nests.
But the french specialist of Vespidae will give me a Chrysidid which was opened of a snail shell used by an Eumeninae