Review and identification of the cuckoo bees of central Europe (Hymenoptera: Halictidae: Sphecodes)
Author
Bogusch, Petr
Author
Straka, Jakub
text
Zootaxa
2012
3311
1
41
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.281041
7fcd479d-7724-4148-a392-8161fbe6d58a
1175-5326
281041
Sphecodes cristatus
Hagens, 1882
Described as:
Sphecodes cristatus
Hagens, 1882
: 218
. No synonyms.
Distribution.
Most of Europe north to 54°N, present in
Sweden
, absent on British Isles and Balkan Peninsula. Known from
Turkey
,
Tajikistan
and
Mongolia
(
Westrich 1989
,
Warncke 1992
).
Biology.
Very rare species of sand dunes and larger sandy sites, in most countries known only from few records.
Blüthgen (1934)
mentioned
Lasioglossum nigripes
(Lepeletier)
as the likely host, but this species differs slightly in ecology.
Westrich (1989)
mentioned
Halictus confusus
Smith
and
H. subauratus
(Rossi)
as likely hosts, without any evidence. In our observations, the most likely host is
H. leucaheneus
Ebmer
and probably also
H. seladonius
(Fabricius)
. We collected few
S. cristatus
at places with common occurence of
H. leucaheneus
in
Slovakia
,
Hungary
and
Mongolia
and the association seems to be possible. However, the most likely host and the cleptoparasite are both rare in central Europe, and to prove the host association is difficult.