- Animals
- ›Arthropods
- ›Hexapods
- ›Insects
- ›Winged and Once-winged Insects
- ›Ants, Bees, Wasps, and Sawflies
- ›Narrow-waisted Wasps, Ants, and Bees
- ›Ants, Bees, and Stinging Wasps
- ›Bees and Apoid Wasps
- ›Bees
- ›Mason, Leafcutter, Carder, and Resin Bees
- ›Megachilinae
- ›Megachilini
Leafcutter, Mortar, and Resin Bees
Megachile
The genus Megachile is a cosmopolitan group of solitary bees, often called leafcutter bees or leafcutting bees; it also includes the resin bees and mortar bees. While other genera within the family Megachilidae may chew leaves or petals into fragments to build their nests, certain species within Megachile neatly cut pieces of leaves or petals, hence their common name. This is one of the largest genera of bees, with more than 1500 species in over 50 subgenera. The alfalfa leafcutter bee (Megachile rotundata) is managed on a commercial scale for crop pollination, and has been introduced by humans to various regions around the world.
60 branches of this genus, most-observed first
Xanthosarus
subgenusXanthosarus
Eutricharaea
subgenusEutricharaea
Litomegachile
subgenusLitomegachile
Giant Resin Bees
subgenusCallomegachile
Sayapis
subgenusSayapis
Megachile
subgenusMegachile
Melanosarus
subgenusMelanosarus
Chelostomoides
subgenusChelostomoides
Hackeriapis
subgenusHackeriapis
Chalicodoma
subgenusChalicodoma
Pseudomegachile
subgenusPseudomegachile
Argyropile
subgenusArgyropile
Pseudocentron
subgenusPseudocentron
Megachiloides
subgenusMegachiloides
Aethomegachile
subgenusAethomegachile
Leptorachis
subgenusLeptorachis
Cressoniella
subgenusCressoniella
Acentron
subgenusAcentron
Dasymegachile
subgenusDasymegachile
Creightonella
subgenusCreightonella
Amegachile
subgenusAmegachile
Phaenosarus
subgenusPhaenosarus
Rhodomegachile
subgenusRhodomegachile
Chelostomoda
subgenusChelostomoda
Maximegachile
subgenusMaximegachile
Chrysosarus
subgenusChrysosarus
Neochelynia
subgenusNeochelynia
Austrochile
subgenusAustrochile
Ptilosarus
subgenusPtilosarus
Tylomegachile
subgenusTylomegachile
Megella
subgenusMegella
Schizomegachile
subgenusSchizomegachile
Lophanthedon
subgenusLophanthedon
Mitchellapis
subgenusMitchellapis
Megachile eucalypti
speciesMegachile eucalypti
Austromegachile
subgenusAustromegachile
Eurymella
subgenusEurymella
Anodonteutricharaea
subgenusAnodonteutricharaea
Chalicodomoides
subgenusChalicodomoides
Moureapis
subgenusMoureapis
Rozenapis
subgenusRozenapis
Thaumatosoma
subgenusThaumatosoma
Xeromegachile
subgenusXeromegachile
Megachile clypeata
speciesMegachile clypeata
Carinula
subgenusCarinula
Megachile rubripes
speciesMegachile rubripes
Megachile fultoni
speciesMegachile fultoni
Megachile architecta
speciesMegachile architecta
Megachile albiscopa
speciesMegachile albiscopa
Megachile iheringi
speciesMegachile iheringi
Trichurochile
subgenusTrichurochile
Megachile estebana
speciesMegachile estebana
Megachile punctatissima
speciesMegachile punctatissima
Oligotropus
subgenusOligotropus
Megachile trapezicauda
speciesMegachile trapezicauda
Megachile edentata
speciesMegachile edentata
Megachile fuliginosa
speciesMegachile fuliginosa
Megachile robertiana
speciesMegachile robertiana
Ptilosaroides
subgenusPtilosaroides
Rhyssomegachile
subgenusRhyssomegachile
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Megachile in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 52784.