Back From the Dead - _TNY_4824
After having dinner inside the greenhouse at my mother-in-law's place outside Härnösand, Sweden, I noticed an emerald wasp (aka cuckoo wasp) on the white wood between the windows.
Normally, when I stick my camera in their face they get moving, but not this one. He/she was literally dead tired after trying to get out of the hot greenhouse through the windows all afternoon.
After snapping this photo: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53034793528/, I tried moving it, but it just fell down on the window sill - crumbled up and looking dead.
I eventually managed to get it off there (tomato plants in the way) and onto the table and my mother-in-law came in with an assist and gave me a cup with a little sugar water to attempt to get it up and running again.
I put a drop of sugar water in front of it and moved the poor liuttle wasp to it, but didn't get a reaction. Legs were still folded in under it and the antennae flat against the body.
After a little while with no improvement, I picked it up by the ends of the wings and literally stuck most of its head into the sugar water. Still not much of a reaction, but a foot began twitching! I then proceeded to take this photo: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53065396272/ where you can actually see its head in the drop of sugar water and kept waiting.
Eventually a whole leg began to move, but not much else and I was prertty much giving up at this point - but I left it on/in the sugar water.
Finally, after a good fifteen minutes in the sugar, I decided this wasn't working and pulled it out - but it did! the tiny wasp began fluttering its wings a bit and actually walking around!
After the mandatory antennae grooming, it walked up onto my finger and I placed it on top of the bee hotel in the garden, looking just as speedy as it should. Here it has found a small hole in the roof and peered down into it for any potential bees or solitary wasps to parasitize on.
The species is called Chrysis equestris and doesn't have a common English name, but the swedish one, "regnbågsguldstekel", meaning rainbow emerald wasp seems quite fitting, right? C. equestris parasitize on Osmia mason bees.
Back From the Dead - _TNY_4824
After having dinner inside the greenhouse at my mother-in-law's place outside Härnösand, Sweden, I noticed an emerald wasp (aka cuckoo wasp) on the white wood between the windows.
Normally, when I stick my camera in their face they get moving, but not this one. He/she was literally dead tired after trying to get out of the hot greenhouse through the windows all afternoon.
After snapping this photo: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53034793528/, I tried moving it, but it just fell down on the window sill - crumbled up and looking dead.
I eventually managed to get it off there (tomato plants in the way) and onto the table and my mother-in-law came in with an assist and gave me a cup with a little sugar water to attempt to get it up and running again.
I put a drop of sugar water in front of it and moved the poor liuttle wasp to it, but didn't get a reaction. Legs were still folded in under it and the antennae flat against the body.
After a little while with no improvement, I picked it up by the ends of the wings and literally stuck most of its head into the sugar water. Still not much of a reaction, but a foot began twitching! I then proceeded to take this photo: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53065396272/ where you can actually see its head in the drop of sugar water and kept waiting.
Eventually a whole leg began to move, but not much else and I was prertty much giving up at this point - but I left it on/in the sugar water.
Finally, after a good fifteen minutes in the sugar, I decided this wasn't working and pulled it out - but it did! the tiny wasp began fluttering its wings a bit and actually walking around!
After the mandatory antennae grooming, it walked up onto my finger and I placed it on top of the bee hotel in the garden, looking just as speedy as it should. Here it has found a small hole in the roof and peered down into it for any potential bees or solitary wasps to parasitize on.
The species is called Chrysis equestris and doesn't have a common English name, but the swedish one, "regnbågsguldstekel", meaning rainbow emerald wasp seems quite fitting, right? C. equestris parasitize on Osmia mason bees.