Scientific Classification
KINGDOM: Animalia
PHYLUM: Arthropoda
CLASS: Insecta
ORDER: Hymenoptera
SUPERFAMILY: Chrysidoidea
FAMILY: Chrysididae
Not all cuckoo wasps are rainbow colored, but they are bright and metallic. Their metallic coloring comes from the open spaces between the cuticle layers in the wasp’s exoskeleton. This spacing protects the wasp from various stings and bites.
Even though they’re bright colors make them easy to see outside
Most subspecies are small, rarely exceeding half an inch in length.
A unique feature is their flexible abdomen that allows them to curl in on themselves if in danger like an armadillo.
There are hundreds of cuckoo wasp subspecies. They have a huge range living in all warm regions of the world, with the majority inhabiting deserts. Cuckoo wasps prefer dry areas with sandy soils as they can find homes in dead wood among other places.
When a cuckoo wasp hatches in another host’s nest, they will eat anything they can find. As adults, they don’t feed off flowers very often, preferring foods rich in carbohydrates. They can regularly be found hanging around aphid colonies eating the honeydew that is excreted by the aphids when they eat sap.
Once a female cuckoo wasp is pregnant, she must find a good bee or wasp nest to lay her eggs. She may either stake out the area and wait for the hosts to leave or sneak in when they’re preoccupied bringing food into the nest. Female cuckoo wasps may also just barge in and hope for the best. If the host catches the wasp, the wasp will curl up defensively and the host will pick her up and throw her outside. Once the eggs hatch, the larvae will either eat the host’s eggs or the provided food.
Their scientific family name, Chrysididae, comes from the Greek word “chrysis”, which means gold vessel.
The cuckoo wasp gets its name from the way they lay their eggs in other unrelated hosts’ nests, like the cuckoo bird does.
