Merodon splendens Hurkmans, 1993: 182 syn. nov.

Type locality.

Italy, Sardinia. The original description was based on a male holotype (Hurkmans 1993) from Lausanne Museum (LAU). Holotype (designated by Hurkmans): male, Italy, Sardinia (LAU), [specimen dry pinned]. Original labels: [Sardaigne St. Ussassai 16. v. 1977 P. Goeldlin], [Holotype of Merodon splendens Hurkmans]. The holotype is conspecific with Merodon clavipes (examined).

Diagnosis.

Male: legs black (Fig. 4 A); antennae black (Fig. 2 A); metafemur extremely broad (~ 2–2.5 × longer than wide) and curved basally (Fig. 4 A); tergum 3 with a pair of rectangular pollinose fasciate maculae, ending close to lateral margins (Fig. 1 C). Female with a pair of reddish lateral maculae on tergum 2 (Fig. 6 C). Male genitalia in Fig. 8. Similar to M. latens sp. nov. from which differs by a broader metafemur, ~ 2–2.5 × longer than wide (Fig. 4 A) (~ 3–3.5 × in M. latens sp. nov.; Fig. 4 B), and the posterior surstylar lobe more straight ventrally (Fig. 8 A: pl) (more arcuate ventrally in M. latens sp. nov.; Fig. 8 C: pl).

Distribution and biology.

From northern France to the Mediterranean (including Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and Crete); from Italy through central and southern Europe to Greece, countries of the former Yugoslavia, as well as Albania, Romania, Ukraine (Odesa region, Zakarpattia region), and southern areas of the European parts of Russia and Turkey. Speight (2020) also mentioned North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula as within the species range. Specimens from North Africa were unavailable to us for examination, so we could not confirm if they indeed belong to Merodon clavipes . In terms of the Iberian specimens, we assert that they belong to M. latens sp. nov. (Fig. 13; Suppl. material 2). The preferred environment of Merodon clavipes in the Mediterranean is sparsely-vegetated open ground in semi-arid environments, typified by unimproved stony pasturage and open grassy areas within thermophilous Quercus forest (Speight 2020). In the more temperate zone of Europe, the preferred environments are steppe grasslands and open areas near thermophilous forests. In Ukraine, at the northern edge of its range, this species occurs in rocky steppe on the margin of Quercus forest (locus typicus of Paramonov’s varieties). Hurkmans (1985) described the territorial behaviour of males and, in Hurkmans (1993), he also noted that females fly close to the soil and through the vegetation. Flowers visited: Umbellifers; Euphorbia, Leontodon and Solidago (Speight 2020) . Flight period: March / August depending on climatic zone (in central Europe adults appear during shorter period in early summer, while in southern Europe there can be two generations, spring and summer ones). Developmental stages: undescribed (Speight 2020).