Genus Cleptes Latreille, 1802

Although Mocsáry (1889) considered the genus Cleptes in Chrysididae, Cleptinae, all the following European authors of the XX century treated members of this genus in a separated family, Cleptidae (Bischoff 1913; Trautmann 1927; Richards 1935; Berland & Bernard 1938; Móczár 1949, 1951, Benno 1950; Beaumont 1955; Linsenmaier 1951; Kusdas 1956). Linsenmaier (1959) was the first European entomologist to consider Cleptinae as a subfamily of Chrysididae . Linsenmaier (1959) included in this subfamily the genus Heterocoelia Dahlbom, 1854, later transferred to the Bethylidae, subfamily Mesitiinae, by Móczár (1971); Walter Linsenmaier never faced with the American and Oriental Cleptinae genera Cleptidea Mocsáry, 1904 and Lustrina Kurian, 1955 .

Linsenmaier (1959, 1968, 1987, 1994, 1999) described 16 species and two subspecies of Cleptes Latreille. All species are still considered valid (Kimsey & Bohart 1991; Móczár 1997a, 1997b, 1998a, 1998b, 1998c, 2000a, 2000b, 2001), with the exception of Cleptes antakyensis Linsenmaier, 1968, which was synonymised by Móczár (1997a) with Cleptes femoralis Mocsáry, 1890 . The status of Cleptes scutellaris gurunensis Linsenmaier, 1987 is doubtful (Móczár 1997a).