Ammophila campestris Latreille, 1809
Description and notes
Many old records and ecological notes attributed to this species have to be treated with caution due to confusion between this species and the very similar A. pubescens Curtis.
Distribution
Old records purporting to be of this species from the British mainland are referable to A. pubescens. This species is only known from the Channel Islands (Jersey), but there are no recent records.
Abroad, it occurs across Europe to China and Korea in the east.
Status (in Britain only)
The Channel Islands are, for a number of reasons, excluded from the geographical coverage of the British Red Data book (Shirt, 1987) and the subsequent review (Falk, 1991).
Habitat
No data available for the Channel Islands. In general, species of the genus are associated with dry, sandy areas.
Flight period
The literature sources for Europe cite May to September.
Prey collected
Ammophila campestris preys exclusively on larvae of sawflies in the family Tenthredinidae (Lomholdt, 1984).
Nesting biology
No data available with certainty, due to the earlier confusion with A. pubescens.
Flowers visited
No data available.
Parasites
No data available.
Year profile last updated
2018