New and little known bees of the genus Sphecodes Latreille, 1804 (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Halictidae) from Central Asia

Abstract

Following a previously published study on Central Asian species of Sphecodes bees we here present a further report on 20 rarely recorded and little known species. This brings to 34 the number of species of Sphecodes known from this region, with two of them recorded for the first time: Sphecodes scabricollis Wesmael, 1835 and S. hakkariensis Warncke, 1992. Sphecodes sandykachis Astafurova & Proshchalykin, sp. n. is described from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Sphecodes atlassa Warncke, 1992, stat. nov. and S. hakkariensis Warncke, 1992, stat. nov. are raised to full species level.

The cuckoo bee genus Sphecodes Latreille, 1804 (Hymenoptera: Halictidae) in Kazakhstan

“…The taxonomy and distribution of species generally follows that of Warncke (1992), Bogusch and Straka (2012), Mitai and Tadauchi (2013), , 2015a, b, 2016a, b, 2017b, and Özbek et al (2015). A detailed current synonymy of the species has been given by Astafurova and Proshchalykin (2017b).…”

“…In recent years there have been a series of contributions attempting to explore the diversity of Sphecodes occurring in Russia and neighboring countries (e.g., Proshchalykin & Astafurova, 2012;Astafurova & Proshchalykin, 2015a, b, 2016a, b, 2017aAstafurova et al, , 2015, particularly across Central Asia and the Russian Far East , 2015c, 2017b. The present work builds upon these by summarizing the current information of the largely unexplored, yet highly diverse fauna of Kazakhstan.…”

New records of bees of the genus Sphecodes Latreille in the Palaearctic part of China (Hymenoptera, Halictidae)

“…Twenty-two of these species are Palaearctic and two species have a Palaearctic-Oriental range. For comparison, 37 species are known from Russia, 20 species of these from the Russian Far East ( Astafurova and Proshchalykin 2014 , 2017b ) and 36 from Central Asia ( Astafurova and Proshchalykin 2017a , Astafurova et al 2018 ). In contrast, the Oriental fauna of the genus is poorly studied: only nine species are recorded from Oriental China, most of which are only known from type series, suggesting that further revision is necessary.…”

“…The present paper is part of a series of works dealing with the bees of the cleptoparastic genus Sphecodes Latreille, 1804 from the Palaearctic region ( Astafurova and Proshchalykin 2014 , 2015a , b , 2016a , b , 2017a , b , Astafurova et al 2014 , 2015 , 2018 ). Consequently, we focus on species in northern China and do not deal with the southern, Oriental species of China.…”

The distribution of the genus Sphecodes Latreille (Hymenoptera, Halictidae) of the Arabian Peninsula and surrounding countries with description of hitherto unknown female of S. atlanticus Warncke, 1992 and male of S. dathei Schwarz, 2010

“…The present paper is part of a series of studies dealing with the bees of the genus Sphecodes of the territory of the Palaearctic region (Warncke 1992; Bogusch and Straka 2012; Özbek et al 2015; Astafurova and Proshchalykin 2014, 2015a, b, c, 2016a, b, 2017a, b, c, 2018; Astafurova et al 2014, 2015, 2018a, b, c, d). The goal of this survey is to improve the knowledge on the taxonomy and distribution of Sphecodes in the Arabian Peninsula and surrounding countries (Israel, Jordan and Syria) (Fig.…”