Pugnacious leafcutter bee
The pugnacious leafcutter bee is a big, all-black bee from North America. The female has strong jaws that work like scissors. She cuts pieces of leaves and uses them to line her nest.
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Fun facts
It nests in long, thin holes, like hollow stems or small tubes made by people.
For every baby the mother makes a little room with a ball of pollen and nectar, lays one egg on it, and closes the room with a plug of mud, sand or leaves.
It takes the mother about one day to finish one little room.
The female carries pollen on thick rows of hairs under her tummy.
The male has bright yellow hairy brushes on his front legs.
Most asked questions about Pugnacious leafcutter bee
?Why is it called a leafcutter bee?
Because the female cuts pieces of leaves with her big jaws and lines her nest with them.
?What does the pugnacious leafcutter bee eat?
Nectar and pollen from daisy-family flowers, like sunflowers and asters.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Megachile pugnata
- Named by
- Say, 1837
- Group
- Bees and bumblebees
- Family
- Megachilidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Megachilidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Megachile pugnata (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 Beatriz Moisset. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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