assectator (Linnaeus, 1758)

Ostrovsky, A. M., 2022, On The Fauna Of Gasteruptiid Wasps (Hymenoptera, Evanioidea, Gasteruptiidae) Of Belarus, Zoodiversity 56 (3), pp. 189-194 : 190

Gasteruption assectator (Linnaeus, 1758)

Material examined. Belarus: Gomel Region: Buda-Koshelevo District, Uvarovichi , 52°35'43" N, 30°43'50" E, 137 a. s. l., on window of log house, 15.06.2005 , 1 Ơ; Gomel District, edge of power line clearing in mixed forest W of Budatin , 52°25'36" N, 31°04'19" E, 145 a. s. l., on flowers of Solidago canadensis L., 03.08.2017, 2 ♀ ; Gomel District, the edge of the power line clearing in the mixed forest W of Gomel , 52°24'39" N, 30°53'49" E, 135 a. s. l., on flowers, 13.07.2019, 1 ♀ ; Bragin District, vil. Kirovo , 51°24'32" N, 30°34'47" E, 105 a. s. l., on wall of abandoned log house, 16.07.2020, 1 ♀ ; Loev District, vil. Karpovka , 52°01'28" N, 30°54'40" E, 114 a. s. l., on dry wood, 12.06.2021 , 1 Ơ (Ostrovsky) .

D i s t r i b u t i o n. Holarctic species. Almost all of Europe: Belarus ( Arnold, 1901: as Foenus affectator F.); Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France (incl. Corsica), Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy (incl. Sardinia and Sicily), Lithuania, Northern Macedonia, Montenegro, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine,and the United Kingdom, also in Middle East Asia: Jordan, Syria, and Iran, and in Morocco and Tunisia in North Africa ( Ferrière, 1946; Šedivý, 1958; Hedqvist, 1973; Oehlke, 1984; Madl, 1989; Pagliano & Scaramozzino, 2000; Achterberg, 2013; Broad & Livermore, 2014; Strumia & Pagliano, 2014; Achterberg & Talebi, 2014; Žikić et al., 2014; Ceccolini, 2016; Vas, 2016; Orlovskyté et al., 2018; Madl & Mitroiu, 2019; Özbek, 2020; Wiśniowski, 2020; Bogusch, 2021). Also known from the USA and Canada ( Johansson & Achterberg, 2016), China and Japan ( Achterberg, 2019).

Notes. Recorded from May to September. Predator-inquiline of bees and wasps nesting in cavities and loess walls. Bees of the genus Hylaeus (Colletidae) are reported as the main hosts: H. annularis (Kirby) , H. brevicornis Nylander , H. communis Nylander , H. confusus Nylander , H. pectoralis Förster , and H.rinki (Górski) ( Höppner, 1904; Wagner, 1907; Wolf, 1953; Malyshev, 1964; Danks,1971; Westrich,1979; Brechtel,1986; Wall,1994; Jakubzik &Cölln,1997; Tscharntke et al., 1998; Bürger, 2004; Pereira-Peixoto et al., 2016; Orlovskyté et al., 2018); direct proof from the nest of H. punctatus (Brullé) was published by Šedivý (1958). Smaller species of Megachilidae were also reported: Chelostoma florisomne (Linnaeus) , Ch. rapunculi (Lepeletier) , Heriades truncorum (Linnaeus) , and Osmia caerulescens (Linnaeus) ( Lindemans, 1921; Nicholson, 1928; Jakubzik & Cölln, 1997; Tscharntke et al., 1998; Westrich, 2008; Petrischak, 2014; Achterberg & Talebi, 2014; Breugel, 2014). Several authors have reported also crabronid wasps Passaloecus cuspidatus Smith , Pemphredon fabricii (Müller) , P. lethifer (Shuckard) , and Trypoxylon figulus (Linnaeus) ( Höppner, 1904; Bradley, 1908; Habermehl, 1921; Fahringer, 1922; Ferrière, 1946; Györfi & Bajari, 1962; Oehlke, 1984; Bogusch et al., 2018) or solitary wasps ( Vespidae ): Odynerus spinipes (Linnaeus) ( Györfi & Bajari, 1962; Oehlke, 1984), although no host records of wasps for any Gasteruption have been directly confirmed ( Bogusch et al., 2018). Parslow et al. (2020) have summarised all host records of this species. Like most species of this genus, G. assectator frequently visits flowers of multiple species of families Apiaceae and Asteraceae ( Wall, 1994) .