Andrena (Aenandrena) hystrix Schmiedeknecht, 1883

Wood, Thomas James, Praz, Christophe, Selis, Marco, Flaminio, Simone, Mei, Maurizio, Cornalba, Maurizio, Rosa, Paolo, Divelec, Romain Le & Michez, Denis, 2023, Revisions to the Andrena fauna of Italy, with the description of a new species (Hymenoptera: Andrenidae), Fragmenta entomologica 55 (2), pp. 271-310 : 284

Andrena (Aenandrena) hystrix Schmiedeknecht, 1883

Andrena hystrix has a disjunct distribution, found in north-western Africa, Iberia, and France, and then again in Ukraine, Turkey, and the Caucasus ( Gusenleitner & Schwarz 2002). Comba (2019) lists A. hystrix in Italy [species 4], citing Dylewska (1987), Comba & Comba (2010), Kuhlmann et al. (2015), and personal correspondence from V. Nobile. Dylewska (1987) does mention Italy as part of the distribution of A. hystrix , but gives no specimen records, and cites Warncke (1974) who does not give an overall distribution for this species. Comba & Comba (2010) report the species uncertainly (marked with a ‘?’) from the Parco Nazionale del Circeo based on a female from between 1919–1949 placed in the MZUR. All Italian material of this group from Central Italy that we have examined belongs to A. bisulcata Morawitz, 1877 , and we consider the possibility of A. hystrix in central Italy to be unlikely.

However, it is possible that A. hystrix is present in north-western Italy in Liguria. The recently designated lectotype of A. hystrix comes from Marseille in south-eastern France (see Wood 2023a), and the distribution maps of Warncke et al. (1974) indicate the presence of A. hystrix in the Maritime Alps on the Italian border. As for other western taxa (e.g. Andrena nitidula ; Burger & Herrmann 2003), it is quite likely that A. hystrix is or was present in Liguria. Targeted searches may reveal its presence, as was the case for Dasypoda crassicornis ( Friese, 1896) which was previously thought to have a range limit in south-eastern France ( Bonifacino 2021). We therefore include A. hystrix on the Italian list as a plausible species.