Broad Handed Leaf Cutter Bee

The common name of this species, leafcutting bee, is derived from its nesting behavior.

Since this bee is a solitary insect little is known of their communication habits.

This species is not in any danger of becoming extinct.

US Federal List: no special status

CITES: no special status

State of Michigan List: no special status

Leafcutting bees develop in the same way as other Hymenoptera, undergoing complete metamorphosis. First larvae hatch from an egg, then as the larvae grows it passes through several instars (stages of growth) each ending with a molt of the exoskeleton. Once the larvae has fully matured it enters the pupal stage where it does not eat or move, but transforms into its adult morphology.

Development - Life Cycle: metamorphosis

Leafcutter bees damage the leaves of plants in order to build nests, but the good they do by pollinating plants far outweighs the damage in cutting the leaves.

Negative Impacts: crop pest

This species of bees is important to the alfalfa industry in Canada and the United States. Leafcutter bees have been domesticated in these areas for farming purposes because of their alfalfa pollinating efficiency, ease of management, and usually rapid increase in populations. These bees adapt to a wide variety of climatic, nesting, and foraging conditions and maintain populations through the presence of predators, parasites, and insecticide poisoning.

Positive Impacts: pollinates crops

Leafcutting bees are important pollinators in natural and agricultural ecosystems.

Ecosystem Impact: pollinates

Leafcutting bees and their larvae feed on the nectar and pollen of legume flowers such as alfalfa and sweet clover. Their diet consists of about 64% nectar and 34% pollen. In order to obtain the nectar and pollen, a bee pries open the keel of a flower while inserting the proboscis (tongue) to suck the nectar. While sucking the nectar, a bee will collect pollen by rubbing against the stamen. To feed its larvae, a bee regurgitates the nectar and brushes off the pollen.

Plant Foods: nectar; pollen

Primary Diet: herbivore (Nectarivore )

Leaf cutting bees, Megachile latimanus, live in the western parts of Canada and the United States, New Zealand, South America, and Europe. This species was accidentally introduced into North America during World War II through the movement of nests in crated war material. Once in North America, they developed large populations under favorable conditions.

Biogeographic Regions: nearctic (Introduced ); palearctic (Introduced ); neotropical ; australian

This species prefers a dry, warm habitat with temperatures exceeding 69 degrees Farenheit. Although Megachile latmanus is most active under these conditions, this species needs a colder temperature in order to break diapause and complete metamorphosis.

Habitat Regions: temperate ; terrestrial

Terrestrial Biomes: savanna or grassland

Other Habitat Features: agricultural

Females of this species live for at least one year, although little more is known about the lifespan of this species.

Most leafcutting bees are moderate-sized, stout-bodied and dark colored. They average about 10 to 20 millimeters in length. Leafcutting bees, like other bees, are covered in tiny, branched body hairs that assist in collecting pollen. This particular species carries pollen on a brush of hair on the ventral side of the abdomen. Males have 13 antennal segments and 7 abdominal tergites, whereas the females have 12 antennal segments and 6 abdominal tergites. Like most other bee species, leafcutting bees have an elongated tongue for reaching the nectar of flowers.

Average length: 10 - 20 mm.

Other Physical Features: ectothermic ; bilateral symmetry ; polymorphic

There are many parasites of leafcutting bees. Many species of flies, wasps (Mutillidae) and beetles (Rhipiphoridae, Meloidae, and Cleridae) parasitize the bees and their larvae, including Coelioxys bees that lay their eggs in the nests of M. latimanus to steal the food of the M. latimanus larvae. Certain ant species in the Crematogaster genus have also been known to attack leafcutter bee nests.

Known Predators:

• Rhipiphoridae (Wedge-shaped beetles)
• Meloidae
• Cleridae
• Crematogaster
• Mutillidae

Leafcutting bees reproduce sexually. This species mates on or around the nest. Usually during the morning, a male will seek out a female and attempt to mate by pulling at the tip of the female's abdomen. If the female is receptive, she will evert her stinger, allowing mating to take place.

A female will produce about one egg per day and an average of about 28 in a lifetime. As with all hymenoptera, the fertilized eggs will be female and unfertilized eggs will be male.

Average eggs per season: 28.

Key Reproductive Features: semelparous ; seasonal breeding ; sexual ; fertilization (Internal ); oviparous ; sperm-storing ; delayed fertilization

The females of this species provisions the nest with enough food for the larvae to eat throughout its developement. Megachile latimanus females lay their eggs on the larval food supply so as to guarantee the larvae will be able to grow. After the female lays her egg she seals the nest in order to protect the developing insect. Once the nest is plugged, there is no further parental involvement.

Parental Investment: pre-hatching/birth (Provisioning: Female)

In Wisconsin the species produces at least two broods annually and makes its nest in the ground on grassy hillsides or in clay banks.

Alta. east to N.S., south to Ga., Kans., Wyo. and Colo. (Alta., N.S., Ont., Que., Sask., Colo., Conn., Del., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Nebr., N.H., N.J., N. Mex., N.Y., N.C., N. Dak., Ohio, Pa., R.I., S. Dak., Utah, Vt., Va., W. Va., Wis., and Wyo.).

Megachile latimanus, or the broad-handed leafcutter, is a species of bee in the family Megachilidae. It was described by Thomas Say in 1823.

Megachile latimanus face