This species is known in Britain from just five records: East Suffolk, Barham (Kirby, 1802), female, the type of the species, collected pre-1802; West Suffolk, Sudbury, 1923, female, B.S. Harwood (Perkins, 1924) (in Natural History Museum, London); West Kent, Luddesdown, 27th August 1899, female, H. Elgar (Felton, 1963) (in Maidstone Museum); West Kent, Eynesford, 27th April, 1930, male (in Natural History Museum, London) and Surrey, Oxshott, July 1915, male, collector not known (in Oxford University Museum). As the most recent record was made more than eighty years ago, it is highly likely that the species is now lost from the British fauna.
This is a Western Palaearctic species, distributed from Sweden and Estonia to Spain, east to Sardinia, Italy, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Also known from North Africa (Morocco to Tunisia) (Osytshnjuk, 1977; Gusenleitner & Schwarz, 2002; Ascher & Pickering, 2012).
Hylaeus signatus male emerging from roost
Pseudomalus auratus
