Chrysis.net Forum

Hi,

I know this picture is probably not enough to narrow down to species, but I'd appreciate any stabs at it. I'm new to chyrsidids, and unfortunately didn't take any other angles or collect the specimen, so what you see is what you get (though I have a few more similar shots with different focal planes.)



The specimen pictured here is a dead Chrysidid photographed in 7 km S of Sandiara, Thies, Senegal, 27-jan-2015. It was found dead, but fully formed as you see, inside cocoons (removed for photo) in cells of a mud nest, possibly of a sphecid wasp. One of multiple specimens of two species found in similar conditions on same day, all dead. The magnification ratio was about 1:1, with the specimen of about 9.5mm. The images are crops of the original shots. Shooting data: Pentax K5 IIs, Pentax 100/2.8 Macro WR, no flash, 1/125" @ F/8.0, 400 ISO.

Dear Noah,

thanks for your beautiful picture!
It's really really interesting!

I can tell you that it's a Chrysis belonging to the smaragdula group, prominula subgroup.
However I need to see some other diagnostic characteristics to be more precise (e.g. the antennal flagellomeres).

I'm always very interested in African Chrysididae and I hope, in the future, that a revision of the African species could be done.

All the Best
Paolo