Europe and western Asia.
Fine-art photographic collection
Chrysura austriaca
A metallic cuckoo wasp that replaces another insect's offspring without building a nest of its own.
About this species
Chrysura austriaca(Fabricius, 1804)
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Chrysura austriaca is a European and western Asian cuckoo wasp. The adult's jewel-like armour conceals a parasitoid life cycle in which the female seeks nests built and provisioned by solitary bees.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Hymenoptera · Chrysididae · Chrysura
Accepted species. A generic “cuckoo wasp” label is not used as a species common name. · checked 2026-07-15
Europe and western AsiaBroad documented range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
What makes this species remarkable?
The female enters a host nest and places an egg there, outsourcing every stage of nest construction and food collection to another species.
After hatching, the cuckoo-wasp larva destroys the host offspring and consumes the pollen-and-nectar provision intended for it.
The underside of the abdomen is concave, allowing the wasp to curl into a tight armoured ball when attacked inside the host's confined nest tunnel.