Abstract
We reviewed nomenclature, biology, hosts, geographical distribution and compiled an identification key for all 33 Sphecodes Latreille, 1804 species known from central Europe. The identification key is separated for females and males and include 204 figures (photographs) of identification characters as well as male genitalia of all species.
Taxonomically difficult groups within the genus were critically studied and new characters, as well as corrected geographical distribution, are presented, i.e., the S. reticulatus group (S. alternatus Smith, 1853, S. crassanus Warncke, 1992 and S. reticulatus Thomson, 1870), S. croaticus group (S. croaticus Meyer, 1922, S. pseudofasciatus Bluthgen, 1925 and S. zangherii Noskiewicz, 1931) and S. miniatus group (S. marginatus Hagens, 1882, S. miniatus Hagens, 1882 and S. nomioidis Pesenko, 1979). The name S. nomioidis is used because it is the only available name for the taxon formerly identified as S. marginatus in Eastern Europe.
Sphecodes capverdensis Pesenko & La Roche, 2002 is considered to be a junior synonym of S. pinguiculus Perez, 1903 (syn. nov.). In addition we summarized all known host records of Sphecodes, including a discussion of the likelihood of published data and presentation of new host data.