History of... Ruby Tailed Wasp

Name:
Ruby Tailed Wasp

Scientific Name:
Chrysis ignita

Family:
Chrysididae

Conservation Status:
Least concern

Habitation:
Can inhabit a wide variety of locations which grasslands, heathlands, moorlands, farmland, woodlands, towns, and gardens.  More specific habitats include sandy quarries, rocky outcrops, tree trunks, and even old brick walls. 

Appearance:
Ruby Tailed Wasps are around 10mm long and have bright metallic colours that can be ruby red, blue and green. Their body consists of three sections. The head, thorax and abdomen. They have six legs.

Diet:
As adults they feed on nectar and honeydew.

Global location:
They can be found in Britain, Ireland, Europe, Russia, China, Japan, the Himalayas, and North Africa.

Reproduction:
Ruby tailed wasps are also known as cuckoo wasps.

They lay their eggs is nests of other solitary bees and wasps.
The female Ruby tailed wasp sneaks into the other wasp’s nest while that wasp is away. It lays her eggs near to the host’s eggs or larvae. The Ruby tailed wasp larvae generally hatch a day or two after the host’s larvae start to hatch. This is to ensure the ruby tailed wasp larvae has plenty of food available when it hatches.
Usually there are host larvae, eggs and any food the host female stored up for their own larvae to eat when hatched.

A favourite host of the Ruby tailed wasp are Mason Bees as their nests are readily accessible.
Other bees and wasps nests that ruby tailed wasps have been known to lay eggs in, are leafcutter bees, mining bees, digger wasps. mud daubers, potter wasps, and plasterer bees.

Lifecycle:
It takes between 28 and 48 days for the larvae to grow from an egg to an adult.

The hatching times of the host larvae usually has a bearing on the hatching time of the ruby tailed wasp in each nest, so individual hatching, maturity and lifespan of each wasp can vary.

Overall the Ruby Tailed Wasp generally has a total lifespan of 9 to 12 months.