In these joint nests some individuals may function as workers and not lay eggs. By summer only one egg-laying bee remains. Some of her female offspring are workers, while others mate and survive the winter to start nests the following spring. Family Megachilidae Leafcutter bees are common throughout Missouri from late spring into early autumn. All are solitary.
Sizes range from five millimeters to on inch.
They are dark in color with several whitish hair bands across the abdomen. Pollen is carried exclusively on the underside of the abdomen, never on the hind legs. Nests are in hollow twigs, stalks, holes in logs, in dried rolled-up leaves, or in the ground. Megachile species cut leaf and flower pieces from preferred plants and use them to build capsulelike cells. Several species are important pollinators of sunflowers.