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 With
some exceptions, Chrysidids are generally colored. Many species
are characterized by colors with metallic glares, green, blue,
copper, gold, etc., and some colorations seem to be typical
of precise geographic regions.
The
Loboscelidiini and the Allocoeliini
lack any metallic coloration; their colors are brown, black,
reddish and, in the some cases, white.
The Amisegini are generally from brown to black,
with little metallic glares from green to blue on face and
thorax; the abdomen is generally non-metallic (metallic in
Duckeia).
The coloration of the Cleptini is very variable.
Some species are completely non-metallic black. Cleptes
species are generally metallic on head and thorax, the abdomen
being non-metallic. Typical of almost all the European Cleptes
is
the metallic color of the head and of the thorax (mainly
red in females and green-blue in males), with a non- or
not completely
metallic abdomen.
The Chrysidini and the Elampini
are always colored with metallic colors. In Europe the commonest
colors are the green-blue on head and thorax, with a copper
or golden abdomen. The species of southern
Spain, N Africa and Middle East tend to be completely copper-
or brass-colored. In tropical Asia we observe the diffusion
of a pattern with green body and a copper-colored spot on
both sides of the second abdominal tergite in species belonging
to even distant Genera (the reason is unknown), while
in the Philippines Chrysidids are purple with a red-shining
head. Some Hedychridium show a reddish non-metallic
abdomen.
In Parnopes a clean chromatic distinction based
on the geographic distribution is observed. The African and
American species tend to be colored of uniform blue, green,
purple. In the palaearctic species, instead, the abdomen
is
often different from the rest of the body and generally non-metallic.
White
colorations are generally reduced to spots and stripes on
mandibles, antennal articles, tegulae, legs, abdominal tergites;
in the species of the Loboscelidiini and the
Elampini they are not observed.
From: Kimsey L.S.
& Bohart R.M., 1991 - The Chrysidid wasps of the
World. Oxford University Press, ix-652.
Observations:
- color
can be altered from the chemicals used in order to kill,
to preserve or to rehydrate specimens.
- color
has a diagnostic value in many cases, but not always, because
each species shows a variability both chromatic and morphologic.
- does
an environmental relation between color of the adult and
the physical parameters (humidity, temperature) at the time
of the development exists?
- melanism
is only rarely observed.
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