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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies (Hymenoptera) » Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps » Apoidea sans Anthophila – Apoid Wasps » Thread-waisted Wasps (Sphecidae) » Chloriontinae » Chlorion

Genus Chlorion

Classification · Other Common Names · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Identification · Food · Life Cycle · See Also · Works Cited

Steel-Blue cricket hunter - Chlorion aerarium

Steel-blue cricket hunter - Chlorion aerarium? - Chlorion aerarium

Maybe Steel-blue Cricket Hunter Chlorion aerarium - Chlorion aerarium - male

Blue Spider Wasp - Chlorion aerarium - female

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

Other Common Names

Blue digger wasps(1)

Explanation of Names

Chlorion Latreille, 1802

Numbers

2 spp. in our area(2), 20 total(3)

1. C. aerarium: transcontinental (s. Canada south to Mexico)

2. C. cyaneum: AZ, NM, TX; Mexico

Identification

One of two genera in our area notable for their distinctively metallic-blue bodies. Chlorion differs from the superficially similar Chalybion as follows:

Head and thorax sparsely hairy, the vertex of the head particularly lacking dense setae

Antennae inserted lower, well below the halfway point of the eye.

The head is more produced at the temples and vertex (different head shape)

Mandibles are dentate rather than simple and sickle-shaped

Pronotum not as strongly notched

Tarsal rake present (females only)

Wing with the hind margin of the third sub-marginal cell meeting the marginal cell at nearly the same point as the fore margin, resulting in a strongly triangular cell rather than a rhombic cell

Propodeum with U-shaped dorsal enclosure defined at least posteriorly by a semicircular sulcus/furrow (Chalybion has at most a median sulcus or pit)

Generally larger

Key to Species

To separated species:(4)

C. aerarium: male face without silvery pubescence; female mesopleuron smooth between punctures, pronotum and scutum with fine scattered punctures

C. cyaneum: male face with silvery pubescence; female mesopleuron wrinkled between punctures, pronotum and scutum with coarse, dense punctures anteriorly

Food

C. aerarium preys on crickets, C. cyaneum on cockroaches(5)

Life Cycle

ground-nesting (Chalybion & Sceliphron build mud nests). Both Chl. aerarium and Chl. cyaneum dig their own nests, commonly in loose gravel or sandy soil; Chl. aerarium will occasionally make use of pre-existing burrows. Only after the nest has been constructed does the female hunt and provision the nest. Old World congeners use only pre-existing burrows.(5)

See Also

Chalybion

Works Cited

1.	The Sting of the Wild: The Story of the Man Who Got Stung for Science Justin O. Schmidt. 2016. John Hopkins University Press: Baltimore, MD.

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.

3.	Pulawski W.J. (2003-) Catalog of Sphecidae sensu lato (Apoidea excluding Apidae)

4.	A Review of the Nearctic Species of Chlorion (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae) with the Description of a New Species from Baja California Arnold S. Menke. 1961. Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 54(5)1: 667-669.

5.	Nesting Behavior of Chlorion cyaneum (Hymenoptera: Sphecidae), a Predator of Cockroaches (Blattaria: Polyphagidae) Allan W. Hook. 2004. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 77(4):558-564.

Contributed by john and jane balaban on 14 November, 2004 - 4:42pm
Additional contributions by Beatriz Moisset, Matthias Buck, Mike Quinn, Ted Kropiewnicki, v belov, PaleoJon
Last updated 12 August, 2023 - 9:39pm

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