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The Etymology of Entomology - _TNY_5544

If you've read the texts that accompany my photos, you know I think a lot about the names of bugs in different languages.

 

One group that annoys me a little extra are the wonderfully beautiful emerald wasps, Chrysididae. Look at the wasp - does that look like an emerald? All green? And what bugs me extra is that it isn't better in Swedish or German. They call it "guldstekel" and "Goldwespe" respectively which is just as bad - is that the colour of gold?

 

But, regardless of etymology, these are among the prettier bugs out there with spectacular metallic colours. This particular one is a female Chrysis terminata (ID by the brilliant Alexander Berg), a species which parasitize the early mason wasp (Ancistrocerus nigricornis).

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Uploaded on September 18, 2021
Taken on September 9, 2021