Halictoxenos tumulorum Perkins 1918

Halictoxenos tumulorum Perkins, 1918 Fig. 1 MATERIAL EXAMINED. Russia: Kursk Oblast, 18.7 km SW of Kursk, near vill. Berezka, Central Chernozem Nature biosphere reserve named after V. V. Alekhin, Streleckaya step, Dedov Vesely, 51.566494°N, 36.107151°E, the edge of the forest, 12.VIII 2022, K.S. Ivlev leg. – 1♂ of Halictus (Monilapis) simplex Blüthgen, 1923 (K.S. Ivlev det. (rechecked by Yu. V. Astafurova)) stylopized by 1♀ of Halictoxenos. tumulorum (between IV and V sternites) (A.M. Ostrovsky det.). DISTRIBUTION. Widely distributed in central and southern Europe, also extending to the Near East and North Africa, currently known from Italy (type locality), Austria, Canary Islands, Czech Republic, Great Britain, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Turkey, Ukraine, Belgium, Estonia and the North-western part of European Russia (Pohl 2010; Soon et al., 2011; Cook, 2019). REMARKS. Three known European Halictoxenos species are highly specialized parasites of bees from the genus Halictus (Hymenoptera: Halictidae). Halictoxenos tumulorum is the only known Stepsiptera parasite of the Halictus subgenus Seladonia, including H. (S.) kessleri Bramson 1879 and H. (S.) tumulorum (Linnaeus, 1758), as well as H. (Monilapis) simplex Blüthgen, 1923 (Cook, 2019), which is a common and widespread species in European Russia (Kinzelbach, 1978).