Genus Philanthus - Beewolves

The common "European" Beewolf is actually widespread virtually everywhere in tropical, subtropical and warm temperates regions, not only of Europe, but in Africa and Asia too.
While it does favor Honeybee (Apis mellifera) workers as preys, it sometimes takes mainly large-sized Halictus females where Honeybees are scarce. Indeed, presence of suitable soils (neither too sandy nor too clayish) in order to dig its long burrows seems more important than abundant Honeybees populations.
Another important factor is a warm, dry summer in the Northern limits of its range, like in my own Geneva region. There, it was much commoner during the late eighties and the nineties than nowadays; summer of 2001 was its last "good year" and it is now quite scarce. On the other hand, bee-keepers have many other things to worry and would certainly prefer numerous beewolves combined wiht colonies in good condition rather than the reverse.