Chrysis parabrevitarsis is a rare species found in forest margins, clearings with sun-exposed dead wood. In Norway, the only record is from sand dunes in the south. The hosts are Eumeninae of the genus Euodynerus. This is one of the largest Chrysis-species. C. parabrevitarsis is characterised by the two spores on the middle tibiae which are of the same length. Chrysis parabrevitarsis is recently described based on cuticular hydrocarbone profiles which differs from the sibling species C. pseudobrevitarsis (Soon et al. 2021). Both species occur in the Nordic countries. This description covers both species. 

Diagnosis

Figure 167

Mesotibia (arrow indicating spurs): C. parabrevitarsis/ C. pseudobrevitarsis​ ♀. Scale 1 mm.

Figure 169

Hindleg (arrow indicating second tarsomere): C. parabrevitarsis/ C. pseudobrevitarsis ♀. Scale 1 mm.

Length 6–10 mm.

The colouration and habitus are similar to C. brevitarsis, but the mandible does not have a subapical tooth, the punctation of the mesoscutum is laterally denser and the punctation of T2 is usually coarser. The short metatarsus (Fig. 169) is characteristic for the females of both species. Males can be confused with e.g. C. longula and C. impressa, but the spurs of the mesotibia are approximately equal in length (Fig. 169), the shape of the body is more compact, and the inner margin of the paramere is angled (as in Fig. 137), not rounded.

Distribution

Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden. Relatively rare.

Trans-Palearctic: from western Europe to Mongolia (Linsenmaier 1997).

Be aware that the records present in the GBIF map may be misleading for some countries due to unrevised data sets or missing information.

GBIF Taxon: Chrysis parabrevitarsis/ Chrysis pseudobrevitarsis

Biology

Habitat: forest margins, clearings and gardens with sun-exposed dead wood. Adults occasionally visit flowers of Apiaceae (Petit 1987).

Flight period: late May to late August.

Host: primarily Euodynerus notatus (Jurine) (Pärn et al. 2014, our own obs.), but probably also E. quadrifasciatus (Fabricius) and Ancistrocerus antilope (Panzer) (Vespidae) (Heinrich 1964, Morgan 1984, Martynova and Fateryga 2015).