''Megachile rubi'' is a species of leaf cutting bee in the family

Megachilidae Megachilidae is a cosmopolitan family of mostly solitary bees. Characteristic traits of this family are the restriction of their pollen-carrying structure (called a '' scopa'') to the ventral surface of the abdomen (rather than mostly or exclu ...

, found in the eastern United States. First described by Mitchell in 1924, it is placed in the subgenus ''Xeromegachile'', members of which are most often found in sandy areas and have distinct preferences in the petals and leaves they use in their nests.

Description

Females can be distinguished from related species by the fact that the 6th tergite (dorsal abdominal plate) has short, flattened downy hairs with no erect or semi-erect hairs. Males are distinguished by the 7th tergite being tipped with a spiny protuberance.

Distribution and habitat

''Megachile rubi'' is native to the eastern part of the United States, its range extending from North Carolina to Florida. These bees are usually found in dry habitats such as sand dunes and areas of sandy scrub.

Behaviour

''M. rubi'' is a solitary bee species and nests in holes in the ground. Holes are excavated by the female at an angle of 20° to 45° from the horizontal and then level out underground. A small

spoil heap A spoil tip (also called a boney pile, culm bank, gob pile, waste tip or bing) is a pile built of accumulated ''spoil'' – waste material removed during mining. Spoil tips are not formed of slag, but in some areas, such as England and Wales, ...

of sandy material is thrown up near the entrance. The female constructs one or more cells in the burrow. Each cell is lined with pieces of cut leaf, the sweet birch (''Betula lenta'') being used in some instances. Each cell has 2 to 6 rounded base pieces, 8 to 14 rectangular side pieces forming several layers round the perimeter, and 2 to 6 rounded cap pieces. Each leaf portion is carefully cut and in the case of the side pieces, the portions forming the inner layers are smaller than the outer ones. The leaf-lined cell is two-thirds filled with a

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by most types of flowers of seed plants for the purpose of sexual reproduction. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced Gametophyte#Heterospory, microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm ...

and

nectar Nectar is a viscous, sugar-rich liquid produced by Plant, plants in glands called nectaries, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollination, pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to an ...

mix and an

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...

is laid at one side before the cap is placed in position. In multi-cell nests, the next cell adjoins the previous one, end to end. Blister beetles (''Lytta'' sp.) sometimes lay their eggs in the cell as

parasites Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The en ...

. When the last cell is capped and the nest is complete, the female drags sandy soil back into the burrow from the spoil heap, plugging the entrance.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2096322 Rubi Insects described in 1924