Megachile texana Cresson 1878

Megachile (Litomegachile) texana Cresson

This is a widely distributed North American species of leaf-cutting bees, ranging from the Atlantic region to the Pacific coast in the United States and southern Canada (Mitchell, 1935). From published records it is obviously polylectic, having been collected on many flowers, especially Leguminosae, Compositae, and Labiatae. Females are in flight from late spring to early fall. The species has been recorded from various desert plants by Butler (1965). In our experience it is the most abundant and consistent of the Megachile taking pollen from Larrea in southeastern Arizona. We have found the females gathering Larrea pollen in large numbers (328 females and 27 males) at most of our sampling sites.

Megachile texana is a ground-nesting species (Krombein, 1953), and we have observed females entering and leaving nests under dead branches and other ground debris among plants in Larrea stands from which they were actively gathering pollen. However, we had no opportunity to observe whether or not they were using previously existing burrows or openings as suggested by Krombein (1970).