This species is found in the western United States, where it ranges from Montana and South Dakota to New Mexico, west to California and north to Oregon, and often inhabits meadows and gardens. The bee is black, but covered by golden/yellow hair on its face, behind its eyes, on its thorax, below its wings (which are blackish) and on its legs. The pollen basket of the species is located under its abdomen. As often found with most bees, Megachile fidelis feeds on the nectar of flowers - particularly the nectar of composite flowers. The nests of M. fidelis are created in almost exactly the same fashion as, M. perihirta, the Western Leafcutting Bee. However, adult bees do not leave their brood cells until all the cells between their cell and the end of the tunnel have been vacated. As with the case of many bees, larva grow extremely rapidly when in their brood cells. It is often found that this species of bee leave their nests around spring.[2]
megachile, fidelis, faithful, leafcutting, species, family, megachilidae, scientific, classificationdomain, eukaryotakingdom, animaliaphylum, arthropodaclass, insectaorder, hymenopterafamily, megachilidaegenus, megachilespecies, fidelisbinomial, namecresson, 1. Megachile fidelis the faithful leafcutting bee is a species of bee in the family Megachilidae Megachile fidelisScientific classificationDomain EukaryotaKingdom AnimaliaPhylum ArthropodaClass InsectaOrder HymenopteraFamily MegachilidaeGenus MegachileSpecies M fidelisBinomial nameMegachile fidelisCresson 1878 1 This species is found in the western United States where it ranges from Montana and South Dakota to New Mexico west to California and north to Oregon and often inhabits meadows and gardens The bee is black but covered by golden yellow hair on its face behind its eyes on its thorax below its wings which are blackish and on its legs The pollen basket of the species is located under its abdomen As often found with most bees Megachile fidelis feeds on the nectar of flowers particularly the nectar of composite flowers The nests of M fidelis are created in almost exactly the same fashion as M perihirta the Western Leafcutting Bee However adult bees do not leave their brood cells until all the cells between their cell and the end of the tunnel have been vacated As with the case of many bees larva grow extremely rapidly when in their brood cells It is often found that this species of bee leave their nests around spring 2 The species was first described by Ezra Townsend Cresson in 1878 1 References Edit a b Megachile fidelis Cresson 1878 Integrated Taxonomic Information System Milne Lorus Margery Milne 2000 National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects amp Spiders Alfred A Knopf ISBN 0 394 50763 0 External links EditColorado State University Extension Leafcutter Bees no 5 The Faithful Leafcutting Bee permanent dead link This Megachile related article is a stub You can help Wikipedia by expanding it vte Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Megachile fidelis amp oldid 1166748285, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
