Paul Leyland – Leafcutter Bee

Paul writes: if you have a bee hotel in your garden and notice that some of the tubes have been sealed with a green leaf then you have a Leafcutter Bee in residence. Another piece of evidence you may find are circular cut-outs from the edges of leaves on your plants.

Leafcutter Bees are solitary bees and nest in long holes, where the female constructs a series of cells. Each cell contains an egg which the bee provisions with a mixture of nectar and pollen for the larvae to feed on as they grow. Each cell is separated by a plug of chewed up green leaf and the end is finally sealed with the same.

If you are patient and watch as the bee flies back and forth from its nest, every so often it will be carrying a leaf cutting. You can also watch as the bee diligently shapes the leaf so it perfectly seals the nest entrance. I first noticed them in my garden last year when one tube had been sealed up. This year the bees emerged at the beginning of July and have been hard at work since then. I now have six tubes sealed up, so it must be a good year for them. If next year follows a similar pattern then I’ll have to extend my bee hotel.

There are several different species of leafcutter in the UK, all in the genus Megachile, they are never common and like a lot of bees are more thinly distributed the further north you go. They’re all fairly similar, a chunky dark bee about the size of a honey bee. Their most noticeable feature is that the pollen collecting hairs are on the underside of the body rather than the legs, so when loaded with pollen appear to have a bright yellow abdomen.

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