Stylops thwaitesi Perkins, 1918

Stylops thwaitesi Perkins, 1918 View in CoL ( Figs 1–2)

Material examined. Ukraine, Kyiv vic., Bilychi , in ♀ Andrena ( Taeniandrena) ovatula (Kirby, 1802) 14.06.2005 1♀, (M. Nesterov leg.) (A. Ostrovsky det.).

Distribution. Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, former Yugoslavia ( Cook, 2019). Recently found in Belarus ( Ostrovsky, 2021).

Hosts. Stylops thwaitesi is a typical parasite of many species of the genus Andrena Fabricius, 1775 ( Hymenoptera : Apidae ): A. (T.) ovatula (Kirby, 1802) ( Perkins, 1918; Kifune et al., 1994), A. ( T.) similis Smith, 1849 ( Hofeneder, 1939), A. ( T.) albofasciata Thomson, 1870 ( Pasteels, 1954; Günther & Šedivý, 1957), A. ( T.) ezoensis Hirashima, 1965 ( Kifune & Hirashima, 1985; Kifune & Maeta, 1990), A. ( T.) wilkella (Kirby, 1802) ( Luna de Carvalho, 1974; Pasteels, 1954; Günther & Šedivý, 1957), A. ( T.) intermedia Thomson, 1870 and A. ( T.) lathyri Alfken, 1899 ( Smit et al., 2020). From Ukraine, only A. (T.) ovatula has been recorded by far as its host. In Ukraine, A. (T.) ovatula is a widespread and common species.

Notes. Stylops thwaitesi has a complicated taxonomic history, which has been described in detail by Cook (2019) and can be briefly summarized as follows. Thwaites (1841, 1842) reported a species of Stylops that parasitized A. convexiuscula (= A. ovatula , which is currently recognized to be a host of S. thwaitesi , which is likely conspecific with the Thwaites’ species). Saunders (1872) named the strepsipterans that parasitize A. convexiscula as S. thwaitei in recognition of Thwaites’ discovery, but did not formally describe the species. Pasteels (1949) declared S. thwaitei as nomen nudum. Perkins (1918) briefly described what he thought to be the strepsipteran mentioned by Thwaites (1841, 1842) and Saunders (1872). Perkins’ brief description of Stylops thwaitesi was based on a specimen from Andrena afzeliella (= A. ovatula ); he declared that the name he used is a corrected subsequent spelling of “ S. thwaitei ”. The name proposed by Perkins, however, is the first available and valid name of this species. Perkins (1918) also named S. wilkellae for specimens previously recorded under S. melittae , which he stated was “extremely similarˮ to S. thwaitesi but used A. wilkella as a host. These species were later synonymized by Pasteels (1954). Stylops albofasciatae Günther & Šedivý, 1957 parasitizing Andrena albofasciata (= A. ovatula ) is now considered to be ajunior synonym of S. thwaitesi . Kinzelbach (1978) considered S. thwaitesi and all European Stylops species as synonyms of S. melittae . Recently, Straka et al. (2015) have resurrected S. thwaitesi from synonymy, and considered S. alfkeni and S. borealis to be junior synonyms of S. thwaitesi instead. Cook (2019) considered S. thwaitesi , S. alfkeni and S. borealis to be separate species.