''Chrysis'' is a very large

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

cuckoo wasp Commonly known as cuckoo wasps or emerald wasps, the hymenopteran family Chrysididae is a very large cosmopolitan group (over 3000 described species) of parasitoid or kleptoparasitic wasps, often highly sculptured, with brilliant metallic col ...

s (insects in the family Chrysididae). It is the largest genus in the family, including over 1,000 species in over 20 subgenera, as speciose as all remaining Chrysididae combined.Kimsey, L.S., Bohart, R.M. 1990. ''The Chrysidid Wasps of the World''.

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

. 652 pp. The generic name is derived from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

''chrysis'', "gold vessel, gold-embroidered dress", and pays tribute to the brilliant metallic appearance of wasps in the genus.

Gallery

File:Chrysididae - Chrysis inaequalis-1.JPG, ''

Chrysis inaequalis ''Chrysis inaequalis'' is a species of cuckoo wasps (insects in the family Chrysididae). The species occurs in Central and Southern Europe and in the Near East. The head and the thorax are shiny metallic blue-green, while the abdomen is red. Adu ...

'' File:Goldwespe.jpg, ''

Chrysis cuprea ''Chrysura cuprea'' is a species of cuckoo wasps (insects in the family Chrysididae). Description ''Chrysura cuprea'' can reach a length of . Body is almost entirely metallic golden-red, only the sides of the rear part of the chest and the leg ...

'' File:Chrysis viridula2.jpg, ''

Chrysis viridula ''Chrysis viridula'' is a Western Palearctic species of cuckoo wasp, first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1761. ''Chrysis viridula'' is included in the genus '' Chrysis'', and the family Chrysididae (the cuckoo wasps). It is a parasitoid of a nu ...

'' File:Chrysis scutellaris.jpg, '' Chrysis scutellaris''

Selected species

References

Biolib

Bibliography

* Chrysidinae Hymenoptera genera {{wasp-stub