noun

• A wasp that lays its eggs in the nest of a bee or another species of wasp.

  a ruby-tailed wasp.a true wasp lacking a worker caste, whose larvae are fed by the social wasp host (several species in the family Vespidae, including Vespula austriaca).

  ‘We investigate the interaction with a specialised cuckoo wasp whose larvae kill the beewolf larvae.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Should the bee return whilst the cuckoo-wasp is still present, the cuckoo wasp curls up into a tight ball.’
  • ‘The cuckoo wasp eggs develop into males and fertile females only - no cuckoo wasp workers are produced.’
  • ‘The cuckoo wasps, as well as the other Hymenoptera previously discussed, are unable to inflict any sort of sting.’
  • ‘Parasitoids usually target certain groups; for example, spider wasps infect spiders and cuckoo wasps infect other wasps.’
  • ‘There are approximately 3000 species of cuckoo wasps throughout the world, including about 230 species in the United States and Canada.’
  • ‘The cuckoo wasp gets its name because it, too, is a nest parasite.’
  • ‘If the female cuckoo wasp is discovered invading the Mud-dauber's nest, she rolls into a ball and uses special armour plates on her body to protect her.’
  • ‘The cuckoo wasp has no workers and therefore lays its eggs in the nest of the red wasp where they are reared by the red wasp workers.’
  • ‘The cuckoo wasp is predatory of sand wasps and lays its larvae in the nests of hosts after killing the host larvae.’
  • ‘Based on chemical and genetic data, I am trying to find out, whether there are different host-races in the cuckoo wasp.’
  • ‘Some species of cuckoo wasps (family Chrysididae) invade the nests of wasps or bees, kill the larvae they find, and deposit their own eggs on the stored provisions.’
  • ‘Ground nests are parasitized by bright green cuckoo wasps, by fuzzy colorful ‘velvet ants’ (be careful, velvet ants have a painful sting), and sometimes by parasitic bees with sharply pointed abdomens.’