Sphecodes pellucidus Smith, 1845

Described as: Sphecodes pellucidus Smith, 1845: 1014 .

Synonyms: Sphecodes pilifrons Thomson, 1870: 99 .

Sphecodes brevicornis Hagens, 1874: 39 –40.

Sphecodes volatilis Smith, 1879: 26 .

Sphecodes pellucidus var. algirus Alfken, 1914: 195 . Sphecodes pellucidus var. hypridus Blüthgen, 1925: 516 . Sphecodes pellucidus var. niveipennis Meyer, 1925: 7 .

Distribution. Europe north to 66°N, present in southern Sweden and Finland, east parts of Asia, North Africa (Westrich 1989, Warncke 1992).

Biology. Species of sandy sites, sand dunes and semidesert biotopes. Locally common. Alfken (1913) confirmed host Andrena barbilabris . Witt (1992) described the biology of this host and the cleptoparasite. Schönitzer & Klinksik (1990) confirmed also A. nycthemera Imhoff; Sick et al. (1994) Lasioglossum leucozonium as hosts of S. pellucidus . Other bee species of sandy biotopes were usually published as likely hosts: Andrena argentata Smith, A. bicolor Fabricius, A. humilis Imhoff, A. ventralis Imhoff and A. wilkella; Vegter (1993) mentioned also Lasioglossum prasinum as likely host. This species was probably common in the localities investigated by this author, because it was considered a likely host of many Sphecodes species. In our survey, S. pellucidus was usually observed in association with A. barbilabris, and S. ephippius from the same localities invaded nests of A. argentata . In our opinion, S. pellucidus is specialized and other hosts are unlikely. To the contrary, we could not reject similar behaviour in S. albilabris, where females try to attack nests of other species.