Giant resin bee
Megachile sculpturalis
Taxon biology 6
The giant resin bee (Megachile sculpturalis) is so named because it is larger than most other leafcutter bees, ranging in size from 14 to 24 mm long, and because it uses its strong jaws to collect plant resin to seal the cells in which it lays eggs. This bee is native to Asia, but was inadvertently transported to the United States in the 1990's, where it was first identified in North Carolina in 1994. It is now present in most of the southeastern United States. This bee resembles bumble (Bombus spp.) and carpenter (Xylocopa spp.) bees, except that it lacks both the hairy abdomen that is present on bumble bees and the shiny abdomen that is present on carpenter bees.
Sources and Credits
- (c) Rob Curtis, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), uploaded by Rob Curtis
- (c) kcr3g3r, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7527/15661867299_14d5332235_o.jpg
- (c) Calopteryx, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3786/9267851717_1278e923cf_o.jpg
- (c) Mark Rosenstein, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Mark Rosenstein
- (c) Anita, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1166/1237096680_2c04b84f8d_o.jpg
- Public Domain, http://eol.org/data_objects/13340549
