Andrena (Melandrena) chrysopyga Schenck, 1853

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 : 279

Andrena (Melandrena) chrysopyga Schenck, 1853

Remarks. This species has a very mixed history in the European literature due to numerous misidentifications. Its range is probably smaller than reported due to confusion with similar species; in short, A. chrysopyga is predominantly a species of steppe or warm grasslands stretching from north-western Europe (marginal occurrence on dry calcareous grasslands) to the true steppe of Central Asia. It is typically found most commonly is such open grasslands, for example historically in Lower Austria and the Pannoni- an basin more generally.

In Italy, the species was cited by Pagliano (1994), ref- erencing the Veneto region ( Giordani Soika 1933), Emilia-Romagna ( Grandi 1937), and Sicily (Warncke 1968, recte 1967). The records from north-eastern Italy almost certainly refer to the very similar A. korleviciana Friese, 1887 that has a distribution around the Adriatic Sea. The reference of Warncke was to the work of Schmiedeknecht (1884) who described A. chrysopyga var. stefaniana Schmiedeknecht, 1884 from Sicily. This type material is lost, or at least its location is unclear ( Gusenleitner & Schwarz 2002). It is possible that it could be in the RMNH collection (see Wood 2023a), but this must be confirmed. In any case, examination of material from Sicily confirms the presence of this species in Italy, though revision of additional Italian material is required to clarify its exact distribution. The true A. chrysopyga appears to be extremely rare in collections.

Material examined

ITALY: SICILY: 1♀, Sicilia orient. dint. Taormina , Si- fone, 5 Jun 1950, leg. Hartig & Grisham ( MZUR) .