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The term "cuckoo wasp" refers to the cuckoo-like way in which wasps in the family lay eggs in the nests of unrelated host species. [1] The term is also used for some wasps outside of the family, such as Sapyga louisi .
Chrysis ignita is a species of cuckoo wasp.It is one of a group of species which are difficult to separate and which may be referred to as ruby-tailed wasps.. Cuckoo wasps are parasitoids and kleptoparasites, laying their eggs in the nests of other species where their young consume the larvae of their hosts.
These wasps are brood parasitoids of crabronid wasps, bees, and eumenine vespids. [2] They are generally kleptoparasites, laying their eggs in host nests, where their larvae consume the host, egg, or larva while it is still young, then consuming the provisions. [1] The ovipositor is tube-like, and used to slip the eggs into the host nests.
The cuckoo wasps lay their eggs in the nests of other wasps, such as those of the potters and mud daubers. [38] Some species of beetle are kleptoparasites, as well. Meloe americanus larvae are known to enter bee nests and feed on the provisions reserved for the bee larva.
Many, notably the cuckoo wasps, are kleptoparasites, laying eggs in the nests of other wasps. Many of the solitary wasps are parasitoidal, meaning they lay eggs on or in other insects (any life stage from egg to adult) and often provision their own nests with such hosts. Unlike true parasites, the wasp larvae eventually kill their hosts.
Hedychrum rutilans is a cleptoparasite and parasitoid of larvae of beewolves (Philanthus triangulum and Philanthus coronatus).The female cuckoo wasp lays its eggs on the paralyzed honeybee workers serving as provisions for the beewolf larvae, placed by the female beewolf in its brood cells.
The cuckoo wasps (Chrysididae) lay their eggs in the nests of potter and mud dauber wasps. Other families of wasps have "cuckoo" species that parasitise related species, as for example Polistes sulcifer , which parasitises a related species, P. dominula .
Similarly to other cuckoo wasps, they are brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nest or cavities of their host species, feeding on their larvae and on the food supply allocated to them. The hosts may be many different species of solitary wasps, but it is mainly the widespread Symmorphus bifasciatus. [3]