Blue Ant (Diamma bicolor)

Appearance

Blue ants have a distinctive metallic blue-green body, with red legs. The female ranges up to 25 mm in length, is wingless and ground-dwelling, and exclusively hunts mole crickets, whereas all other species of tiphiids attack beetle larvae. The cricket is paralysed with venom injected by the female's stinger and an egg is laid upon it so the wasp larva has a ready supply of food. The male is smaller, approximately 15 mm, and has wings. Adults feed on nectar, and pollinate various native Australian flowers.

The sting can cause a severe burning sensation and swelling in humans; in rare cases, it can cause a life-threatening reaction.

Blue Ant - male ( Diamma bicolor) Also known as Blue Bottle, this is a male flower wasp is not as common as the wingless female which looks more like a large shiny blue ant.
This wasp was of a moderate size-15 mm. It had black head, eyes, thorax and abdomen and short black antennae. The abdomen had 3 visible white markings on both dorsal and ventral aspects and perhaps a pair of small white patches at the waist. The anterior thoracic margin was also white.
Wings were tinted and the leading edges appeared black and thickened. Femurs, tibiae and tarsi were brown.
Spotted on tea-tree ( Leptospermum sp.)
The female of the species can be seen on http://www.jungledragon.com/image/36470
Australia,Blue ant,Diamma bicolor,Geotagged,Spring

Naming

It is the sole member of the subfamily Diamminae, and is both morphologically and behaviorally unusual among members of the family Tiphiidae.

References:

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Taxonomy
Kingdom	Animalia
Division	Arthropoda
Class	Insecta
Order	Hymenoptera
Family	Tiphiidae
Genus	Diamma
Species	D. bicolor

Photographed in
Australia