Alfalfa leafcutter bee
The alfalfa leafcutter bee is a small dark grey bee that cuts neat little circles out of leaves with its jaws. It uses the leaf pieces to build tiny cups for its babies, like a careful builder. It lives alone, not in a big hive, and does not make honey.
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Fun facts
A mother bee uses about 15 leaf pieces to build one thimble-shaped room for one egg.
She needs 15 to 20 trips to fill just one room with food.
Farmers put these bees near their fields because they are super good at pollinating alfalfa, carrots and other plants.
It can build its nest in all sorts of tubes: rotting wood, plant stems, reeds and even drinking straws.
Females are covered in white hairs, while males have white and yellow spots on their tummies.
Most asked questions about Alfalfa leafcutter bee
?Why does the leafcutter bee cut leaves?
It uses the round leaf pieces to build little cups for its eggs inside its nest tunnel.
?Does the alfalfa leafcutter bee make honey?
No. It lives alone and does not store honey, but it stores nectar and pollen for its babies.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Megachile rotundata
- Group
- Bees and bumblebees
- Family
- Megachilidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Megachilidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Alfalfa leafcutting bee
Where the facts come from
- Megachile rotundata (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by unknown author. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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