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Species Chlorion aerarium - Steel-blue Cricket-hunter Wasp

metallic green Wasp - Chlorion aerarium Black bug 02 - Chlorion aerarium Blue Mud Dauber Wasp - Chlorion aerarium Steel-blue cricket hunter (Chlorion aerarium)? - Chlorion aerarium - male Possibly a wasp? (Blue Mud or Cricket Hunter?) - Chlorion aerarium Sphecid? - Chlorion aerarium Chlorion aerarium - female Sphecidae? - Chlorion aerarium
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)
No Taxon (Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps)
No Taxon (Apoidea sans Anthophila – Apoid Wasps)
Family Sphecidae (Thread-waisted Wasps)
Subfamily Chloriontinae
Genus Chlorion
Species aerarium (Steel-blue Cricket-hunter Wasp)
Other Common Names
Steel-blue cricket wasp
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Chlorion aerarium Patton 1879
Size
~25 mm
Identification
Ch. cyaneum (which co-occurs with Ch. aerarium in sAZ and sTX) can be distinguished as follows(1):
Male: face with silvery appressed pubescence (absent in C. aerarium, hairs dark)
Female: mesopleural surface ridged or wrinkled between punctures; pronotum and scutum with coarse, rather dense punctures, at least anteriorly (C. aerarium: mesopleural surface everywhere smooth between punctures; pronotum and scutum with fine, widely scattered punctures).
Range
transcontinental(2): so. Canada to Mexico
Habitat
Although generally not closely associated with humans, they are found wherever their hosts (Gryllus crickets) are found, which could include close proximity to homes (though not so much as Sceliphron and Chalybion). Chlorion is usually found in open areas such as meadows, overgrown fields, dunes, beach edges, etc., although they may not necessarily hunt in the same habitat as they nest. They are sometimes associated with the Cicada Killer where the ranges of these two wasps overlap, C. aerarium digging burrows off side of the larger wasps nest (O'Brien, 1989).
Life Cycle
Females with prey:
Remarks
Females mass-provision several serial cells, each containing from 2 to 9 nymphs or adults of Gryllus. Prey are dragged venter-up, with the wasp's mandibles grasping the cricket's antennae.
Print References
O'Brien M.F. (1989) Distribution and biology of the sphecine wasps of Michigan (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae: Sphecinae). Great Lakes Entomol. 22: 199-217.
Works Cited
1.Sphecid wasps of the world: a generic revision
Richard Mitchell Bohart, Arnold S. Menke. 1976. University of California Press.
2.Catalog of Hymenoptera in America North of Mexico
Karl V. Krombein, Paul D. Hurd, Jr., David R. Smith, and B. D. Burks. 1979. Smithsonian Institution Press.