Ruby-tailed wasp
The ruby-tailed wasp sparkles like a jewel. Its head and middle are shiny green or blue, and its tail is deep ruby red. It is a cuckoo wasp: like a cuckoo bird, it sneaks its eggs into another animal's nest.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
When another wasp attacks it, it rolls up into a tight ball, protected by its hard armour.
Its shiny body is covered in tiny dimples, a bit like a golf ball.
The mother hides near a nest and waits until the owner flies off, then slips in to lay her egg.
Its favourite hosts are potter wasps, which build little nests in walls and holes.
Most asked questions about Ruby-tailed wasp
?Why is it called a cuckoo wasp?
Because, like the cuckoo bird, it lays its eggs in another animal's nest.
?Where can I see a ruby-tailed wasp?
On warm sunny walls, rocks and old wood in summer, where other wasps make their nests.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Chrysis ignita
- Group
- Wasps and hornets
- Family
- Chrysididae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Chrysididae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
- Also known as
- Cuckoo wasp
Where the facts come from
- Chrysis ignita (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Sven Damerow. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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