Sphecodes croaticus Meyer, 1922

Bogusch, Petr & Straka, Jakub, 2012, Review and identification of the cuckoo bees of central Europe (Hymenoptera: Halictidae: Sphecodes), Zootaxa 3311, pp. 1-41 : 9

Sphecodes croaticus Meyer, 1922

Described as: Sphecodes croaticus Meyer, 1922: 171 . No synonyms.

Distribution. South Europe, reaching central Europe, known also from Cyprus, Russia, Turkey and Morocco ( Warncke 1992). Due the confusion with S. pseudofasciatus and S. zangherii , the distribution can be incorrect. We examined material from: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Turkey.

Biology. Rare species of warm open habitats, usually steppes and warm sites, either on loess walls, or sandy dunes; very rare and only in the warmest parts of central Europe. Lasioglossum interruptum (Panzer) is the only published host ( Blüthgen 1934) and was also observed by us and M. Herrmann (pers. comm.).

Note. Burger & Reum (2004) and Burger et al. (2006) stated that specimens from central Europe are not S. croaticus but instead S. zangherii . Examination of specimens from various parts of Europe and also specimens identified by F. Burger showed that these specimens are in fact S. croaticus . Thus, S. croaticus is thermophilous and widespread in central Europe, contrary to the much rarer S. zangherii .