Distribution of Sceliphron destillatorium Illiger , 1807 ( Hymenoptera , Sphecidae ) in Poland

* Department o f Forest Protection, Forest Entomology and Climatology, Faculty o f Forestry, University o f Agriculture in Krakow, al. 29. Listopada 46, 31-425 Kraków, Poland; e-mail rlbilans@cyf-kr.edu.pl ** Department ofSilviculture, Faculty o f Forestry, University o f Agriculture in Krakow, al. 29. Listopada 46, 31-425 Kraków, Poland; e-mail: rkolodz@ cyf-kr. edu.pl ***Department o f Forest Ecology, Faculty o f Forestry, University o f Agriculture in Krakow, al. 29. Listopada 46, 31425 Kraków, Poland; e-mail rlpajak@cyf-kr.edu.pl

S. destillatorium is a large, contrastingly coloured species of the order Hymenoptera, the recognition and observation of which is relatively simple.For this reason, and because of traces of its existence in the form of clay nests located inside and outside various types of buildings, much information can be obtained even from a novice amateur naturalist.Unfortunately, the bright coloration of this species is just as often the cause of its demise, as it is frequently mistaken for an aggressive wasp and killed as a result.It is also often the case that S. destillatorium nests found on buildings are destroyed.Only nests built in hard-to-reach places such as on chimneys or in the comers of attics have a chance to survive.The problem of observing new localities is tied to the locations of nests, because oftentimes the observation of nests requires attaining permission from building owners.
In Poland, the occurrence of S. destillatorium is tied with human habitations.In areas lacking natural sites suited for nest-building, S. destillatorium makes use of buildings.One factor lending itself to this species' settlement in a given area is an abundance of muddy places nearby.In Poland, such places include the edges of rivers and ponds as well as muddy roads and fields in rural areas.Kazenas (1998Kazenas ( , 2001Kazenas ( , 2002) ) also noted this factor beyond Poland.In recent years, the number of rural ponds and residential ponds has been increasing which may influence this species' success in colonizing new areas.
Sceliphron destillatorium inhabits the southern Palaearctic.In Poland, the first localities were noted in the eastern and southeastern parts o f the country in the 1960s (Vecht & Breugel 1968) and 1970s (Soszyński & Soszyński 1985).For some time, the territory inhabited by this species has undergone expansion.Evidence o f this is the rise in the number o f known localities o f S. destillatorium in Poland as well as in neighbouring countries like Germany (Gauss 1997, Stalling 2002), the Czech Republic (Lukâs et al. 2006, Bogusch et al. 2007), or Slovakia (Lukas 2003, Panigaj 2003, Lukâs et al. 2006, Bogusch et al. 2007).
The goal o f this work is to present the current state o f knowledge concerning the distribution o f localities o f S. destillatorium in Poland.Localities already known from the literature are placed side-by-side with those discovered during the investigations.From 2003 to 2011, faunal information regarding the occurrence of S. destillatorium was gathered as well as other forms of evidence.During this time, nests were collected, imago breeding was conducted, imagines were gathered outdoors, and discovered localities were photographically documented.The gathered insects and their nests as well as photographic documentation can all be found in the Department of Forest Protection, Forest Entomology and Climatology.Determination and nomenclature were done according to Schmid-Egger (2005).The locations of new as well as already known localities were marked on a map of Poland with a UTM grid.The new localities have been grouped in the text according to zoogeographical areas following the Catalogue of Fauna of Poland (Burakowski et al. 2000).Undocumented localities were also taken into account if their presence in a given area was highly probable based on documented localities.Information concerning localities needing confirmation came mostly from hobbyist naturalists.
The likely extent of occurrence of S. destillatorium in Poland was plotted based on the distribution of extreme localities.
The localities of S. destillatorium were confirmed in various zoogeographical regions according to the Catalogue of Fauna of Poland (Burakowski et al. 2000) (Fig. 1).

R e su lts
On Polish territory, there has been a total of 49 newly confirmed localities of S. destillatorium, including 39 documented cases and 10 undocumented cases requiring confirmation.VII 2011, 7 nests inside the attic of a house and outbuilding -6 of which are from previous years and have been partially abandoned, 1 newly completed; 25 VII 2011, two nests under construction in the attic of a building, photographic documentation of imago and nests Tomasz Mikulski.Cieplice ad Sienawa, (FA16), 2009-2010, 1 nest in the comer of a window in a house, near a pond, observation of nest Janusz Starzak.Turza (EA76), 8 VIII 2009, 16 nests leg.Zbigniew Kołodziej coll.PB; 24 VII 2010, two nests in the comers of the facade of a house, Piotr Bilański photographic documentation.Next to the house is a pond.Over a dozen nests from the attic were destroyed and thrown into the pond.24 VII 2010, 2 nests in the attic http://rcin.org.pl of a house and the observation of an ex.imago flying into the attic of a farm building.Observation of imago and photographic documentation of nests Piotr Bilański.Czajkowa (EA38), 3 VIII 2010, a nest on the facade of a residential building, leg.Janusz Wrona coll.PB.Koziarnia ad Rudnik nad Sanem (EA98), 10 VII 2010, 1 ex.imago leg.et coli.Paweł Sowa, a nest in the attic of a house, nearby (87 m) lies a pond.Observation of the nest in the attic Paweł Sowa.Niwiska (EA46), 22 VII 2010, 1 ex.imago, observed on the flying next to a building, Hubert Jemioło, oral information.Ocieka (EA45), 29 VI 2010, imago 2 exx.killed on the steps to the porch of a residential building, photographic documentation Hubert Jemioło.Pocyrchle ad Rudnik nad Sanem (EA98), July 2010, 2 nests, oral information, Paweł Sowa.Rudka ad Sieniawa (FA16), August 2010, 2 exx.imago, observed in a home, nests not found, Bartłomiej Szkamruk oral information.Siedlanka ad Kolbuszowa (EA46), 22 VII 2010, 1 ex.imago f, 1 ex.imago m, leg.et coll.PB.Specimen caught on a meadow near a forest, a few dozen yards away lies a pond.Wilcza Wola (EA67), 13 VII 2010, 1 ex.imago, leg.Zbigniew Kołodziej coll.PB, dead imago on nature path on the shores of the lagoon in Wilcza Wola.Żabno ad Dąbrowa Tarnowska (DA95), July 2010, 1 ex.f, leg.et coll.Mateusz Dydyński, also an ex.imago seen in the summer in a house on the window from the south.At a distance of 750 m to the east flows a river.Photographic documentation of the imago Piotr Bilański.Zmysłówka ad Leżajsk (FA05), 16 VIII 2011, two nests on a garage near a pond, photo documentation and leg.Jerzy Kasprzak; 3 IX 2011, 2 nests inside the attic of a house near a pond, photo documentation Jerzy Kasprzak.Up to this point, there were 30 known localities of S. destillatorium in Poland (Soszyński & Soszyński 1985, Celary 1996, Celary 1998, Wiśniowski 2000, Zator 2004, Wiśniowski 2007;Kowalczyk et al. 2009;Kosibowicz 2009;Bury et al. 2009).The discovery of 39 new documented localities in southeastern Poland indicates that this species has acclimated itself to the environmental conditions here.The density of localities known from the literature as well as those found during the surveys tends to decrease going from east to west and from south to north, which indicates the directions of expansion of this species in Poland.The first discoveries of this species in Poland in the 1960s and 70s were the result of an increase in the area of occurrence in the surrounding geographical regions, including the European part of Russia (Soszyński & Soszyński 1985after Fomichev & Minoranskij 1971).It is difficult to determine whether the then discovered localities of S. destillatorium were part of a continuous distribution, or a dotted distribution instead.In the case of localities near Lublin, the latter conjecture is more likely.On the other hand, in the Eastern Beskidy Mountains region, a continuous population distribution seems to be the very likely, based on the more frequent observations of imagines and nests in this part of Poland.Regarding the continuity of the population of S. destillatorium in Poland, it is necessary to use the same caution when interpreting currently confirmed localities on the northern and western reaches of this species in Poland.
The expansion of S. destillatorium and many other species of similar environmental requirements can be tied to the wanning of the climate.However, such conjectures require confirmation, because many factors come into play with regards to the expansion of a species' territorial extent, including intrapopulational factors (i.e. the number of migrating specimens).In new areas, a population is able to free itself, for a time, from some parasites.Stilbum cyamtrum cyamtrum Forst.(Hymenoptera, Chrysididae), a parasite of S. destillatorium (Moczar 1961) has not yet to be found in Poland (Bogdanowicz et al. 2004).
A likely critical factor in the density of the S. destillatorium population is the distance a female has to fly between her nest and the source of building materials for the nest as well as source of food for her and her larvae.S. destillatorium imagines are nectarivores and palynivores, while larvae feed off of spiders gathered in the nest by the female.
Taking into account the observed speed at which S. destillatorium lias been colonizing Poland in the last few years, new localities claimed by this work to be beyond the territorial extent of this species in Poland, may in reality already be part of the continuous extent of this species in Poland.Localities from around Koniecpol and Łódź were noted a few years ago, while the locality in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska is represented by a nest, which was probably built in 2010.The determination of the exact and realistic extent of S. destillatorium in Poland requires continuous commitment to research and many people.
range of species and northern limits of its range