Sphecodes cristatus Hagens, 1882

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 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.