Chrysis.net Forum

I found this in Bulgaria on the Black Sea Coast at the beginning of June. The environment was a dry meadow between some dunes at the back of a beach. There were a number of these wasps preoccupied with feeding on the yellow flowers, moving slowly between the florets. They were very small, ca 4mm. The photos were taken with a 90 mm macro lens and a Raynox DCR-250 add-on lens (no flash) and are cropped. Thank you for any help with the id. I am new to this great forum.

Nice picture !
This specimen looks like Chrysura dichroa group (maybe not dichroa with this very small size, filiformis or other species).

Sylvester,

very nice pictures here and on Flickr,
congratulations

Your specimen is really interesting and the first record for our Forum:
Chrysura lydiae lydiae (Mocsáry, 1889)

Thanks!
Paolo

Thank you for the id. I'm happy to have contributed something interesting to the forum.
Sylvester

Nice pictures on flickr !

But for me the green chrysidid is Omalus sp (cf. aeneus) : no punctures (or very small) on the mesoscutum + habitus.
(Hedychrum have a broad abdomen, not as thick and convex as here, but I never viewed H. chalybaeum).

Hi,
in my opinion Jérôme is right.
The shown animal is probably Omalus sp. (aenaeus or puncticollis).
Here is a male of Hedychrum chalybaeum I saw yesterday. The pic
shows a similar view and I hope it also shows the differences.
Best regards Paul

Jerome and Paul,

Thank you. Looking at the characteristics again (not that I am an expert) you are definitely right. Thank you for looking through my photos and taking time to comment!

Hi Paul,
How do you find Hedychrum chalybaeum ??
I never found this species, even it have a large distribution !
I find often gerstaeckeri, rutilans, sometimes niemelai, in sandy area, nobile (but not in my region :s), longicolle is very common in south of France... but no chalybaeum ^^.

"How do you find Hedychrum chalybaeum ??"
I've looked for... No, we have only very few localites where you can meet them.
But in these areas they are quite common. Last sunday I saw some of them but
the more the season continues the males disappear.
On the other side we have no H. longicolle in our region.
So we must take what is possible...

All the best Paul

H. longicolle is a mediterranean species.

In my region (east of France, nearing Swiss, Elsass, Germany, I recorded 42-43 Chrysididae (the only 2 Cleptes are found in the 70's & 80's).
But I never found in natura many species (especially Chrysura, Cleptes and Elampini).
Never found Elampus, Philoctetes, Holopyga, for the moment... But I search them !

From memory : (species)
1 or 2 Cleptes (never found in natura)

Omalus : 2 (but never found in natura)
Pseudomalus : 2 (but 1 found in natura)
Hedychrum : 3
Hedychridium : 4 (but 3 found in natura)
(11 Elampini)

Trichrysis : 1
Pseudochrysis : 1 (=Pseudospinolia)
Chrysura : 7 (but only 2 viewed in natura)
Chrysis : 21
sexdentata-smaragdula group : 1
inaequalis group : 1
gracillima group : 1 (not found in natura for the moment)
succincta group : 2
comparata group : 3 (1 not found in natura)
graelsi group : 1 (not found in natura)
viridula group : 1 (not found in natura)
splendidula group : 1
ignita group : 10 (but 4 found in natura, 2 not sure for ID)