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Journal of Melittology, 48, p. 1

DOI: 10.17161/jom.v0i48.4847

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Megachile (Megachile) montivaga (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) nesting in live thistle (Asteraceae: Cirsium)

Journal article published in 2015 by Michael C. Orr ORCID, Zachary M. Portman, Terry L. Griswold
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Although Megachile Latreille (leafcutter bees) are well known for their diverse nesting habits, records of the genus nesting in live plants are rare. Here, we report the widespread Megachile (Megachile) montivaga Cresson nesting in live thistle (Cirsium neomexicanum Gray), the first explicit record of this behavior in the Nearctic. Much has been learned about nesting habits of leafcutter bees through the use of trap nests, but much less is known about their natural nesting choices (Krombein, 1967; Baker et al., 1985; Cardoso & Silveira, 2012). Here, we record a rarely encountered behavior for Megachile (Megachile) montivaga Cresson, 1878: nesting in live stems. In May of 2012, while collecting bees in the Hualapai Mountains of northwestern Arizona, the two primary authors witnessed Megachile Latreille nesting in living thistles at two sites. The first site (N35.13854 W113.92284; WGS 84), visited on 11 May, was dominated by juniper and yucca, with blooming thistle patchily occupying occasional open areas. Here, a pollen-laden female of Megachile was observed entering a thistle and emerging several minutes later without pollen. The bee was immediately collected. Although the site had relatively few thistles, one of the roughly ten other plants also showed a similar hole. Both the initial nest and the additional excavated stem were collected. The bee and diagnostic plant samples were later identified and vouch-ered in the USDA-ARS National Pollinating Insect Collection (NPIC; BBSL817341) and Utah State Intermountain Herbarium (UTC00266393, UTC00266392) as M. montivaga and Cirsium neomexicanum Gray, respectively.