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Sticker of Byssal resin-leafcutter
Bug card No. 0741 of 4,939

Byssal resin-leafcutter

Trachusa byssina
Name means: “the Latin word byssina means made of the finest linen”
Eats: Nectar and pollenBees and bumblebeesGardens and meadows6 legs

The byssal resin-leafcutter is a wild bee that builds a clever underground nest. It digs a tunnel in the ground and lines the little rooms inside with pieces of leaves. Then it paints the leaves with sticky pine resin.

Lives in
From Portugal across Europe and Asia to the far east of Russia, at sunny forest edges and meadows
Length
1.1 to 1.2 cm (0.43 to 0.47 in)
Top speed
about 22 km/h (14 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Can sting

Bees and wasps can sting! Read about stings on Venom Wiki →

What does it eat?
It drinks nectar and collects pollen, mostly from bird's-foot trefoil and other pea flowers. The babies eat a mix of pollen and nectar that their mother packs for them.
For real!Photo of Byssal resin-leafcutter
Picture by ChrisMoWiki. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Byssal resin-leafcutter about 1.2 cm long (0.47 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)
as long as 2 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 17 secondsmoves 510 times its own body length every second

How big is Byssal resin-leafcutter compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its nest is a branching tunnel in the ground, 10 to 15 centimetres long, with two to four baby rooms at the ends.

2

It cuts strips from the leaves of birch, oak, roses and blackberries to build the walls of its baby rooms.

3

The female may fly 100 to 200 metres away from her nest to collect food.

4

The babies spend the winter asleep inside a cocoon and come out as bees the next summer.

5

The female has a fox-red, hairy middle and a white brush of hairs on her belly for carrying pollen.

you asked

Most asked questions about Byssal resin-leafcutter

?Where does the byssal resin-leafcutter nest?

In the ground, often in sandy soil on sunny slopes near pine trees.

?What does the byssal resin-leafcutter eat?

Nectar and pollen, mostly from bird's-foot trefoil and other pea flowers.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Trachusa byssina
Group
Bees and bumblebees
Family
Megachilidae
Classification
Insecta > Hymenoptera > Megachilidae
Lives on
Europe, Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Trachusa byssina (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by ChrisMoWiki. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this 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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