Chrysidid wasp

[steorra]

This morning I saw a shiny blue-green insect that I'm fairly sure was Chrysidid wasp (cuckoo wasp, emerald wasp). One picture behind the cut.



For more pictures and details of my identification process, see this post on my own journal.

Comments

[shirebound]

What a beauty.

[steorra]

Indeed!

[redsixwing]

What a glorious color it is!

[steorra]

It sure is!

[iddewes]

Oh wow, never even knew such a wasp existed!

[steorra]

I didn't know about these particular ones either, though I did know that the social wasps people mostly think of are a tiny minority of the range of wasps that actually exist. (Did you know that lots of kinds of wasps can't sting? The stinger was a development in a subcategory of wasps that also includes ants and bees, and they're the best-known ones but there are lots of others.)

I've learnt a lot in investigating this wasp, and it makes me happy.