In November 2021 we briefly posted about a species of Megachile called Willughby’s Leafcutter Bee – Megachile willughbiella (click HERE to see post). We were unsure at the time if we had identified the species correctly and have not seen this species since in the Garden. However on the 9th June 2023 we recorded the following species, which immediately struck us as likely being something we hadn’t seen before. It had a different feel to it. So we crept slowly towards it and managed to get some images and video before it flew off next door.
An amazingly neat species, with fantastically defined features. It was continually raising it’s abdomen, as can be seen in the image above, which we have read is something female Megachile centuncularis – Patchwork Leafcutter Bees tend to do.
The short video below shows more of the detail of this species, including the pollen brush, which forms the underside of the abdomen, and which in this species is orange to the very tip. Another clue this might be M. centuncularis 1*.
According to our Bee Book *1 this species is frequent and widespread in the South of England and gardens are noted as somewhere it is often recorded. So whilst we think we probably have the correct species, we will again mark this as Most Likely Species on the Garden list.
As for M. willughbiella – Willughby’s Leafcutter Bee, we still believe it to be a different species to the one recorded above and the most likely different species it could be is Willughby’s Leafcutter. So for now we will keep both species on the list.
DC: 10.06.2023
Ref 1*: Falk, S. (2016) Field Guide to the Bees of Great B
Wildlife Garden 