''Megachile willughbiella'', Willughby's leaf-cutter bee is a species of
bee
Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyly, monophyletic lineage within the ...
in the family
Megachilidae.
It was
described by the English entomologist
William Kirby in 1802; he named it in honour of the ornithologist
Francis Willughby.
Description
''Megachile willughbiella'' is a leafcutter bee found in gardens and brownfield areas especially in cities. The nest is built in soil or in wood; the cells are made of leaves. The species has
kleptoparasites from the leafcutting
cuckoo bee genus ''
Coelioxys
''Coelioxys'', common name leaf-cutting cuckoo bees or sharp-tailed bees , is a genus of solitary kleptoparasitic or brood parasitic bees, belonging to the family Megachilidae.
Diversity
The genus includes about 500 species in 15 subgenera.
...
'', such as ''C. quadridentata'', ''C. rufescens'' and ''C. elongata''.
Pollen
Pollen is a powdery substance produced by seed plants. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametophyt ...
is collected from a wide variety of flowers including
Asteraceae
The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...
,
and
Onagraceae, with a preference for
Campanulaceae (bellflowers).
Distribution
The species is widely spread across western Europe between Finland, Lithuania and Spain, including Britain and Ireland. In Britain it is one of the most commonly recorded leafcutter species; it is absent from the north Midlands and from mid- and north Wales, but occurs from Cornwall all the way to Inverness, becoming scarcer with latitude.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2497092
willughbiella
Insects described in 1802