---
title: "Brown-footed Leafcutter Bee"
date: 2026-09-17
published: 2026-06-29
author: "Dragos Nistor"
featured_image: "https://honeybeeandco.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/brown-footed-leafcutter-bee-megachile-versicolor.jpg"
categories:
  - name: "Bees Category"
    url: "/bees-category.md"
tags:
  - name: "Common"
    url: "/tag/common.md"
  - name: "Mason bee"
    url: "/tag/mason-bee.md"
  - name: "Solitary bee"
    url: "/tag/solitary-bee.md"
  - name: "UK bees"
    url: "/tag/uk-bees.md"
---

# Brown-footed Leafcutter Bee

![Brown-footed leafcutter bee, Megachile versicolor, a dark banded bee feeding on a yellow composite flower](https://honeybeeandco.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/brown-footed-leafcutter-bee-megachile-versicolor.jpg "1")*Megachile versicolor*, the brown-footed leafcutter bee. [Reinhold Möller](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bunte_Blattschneiderbiene_(Megachile_versicolor)-20250727-RM-152417.jpg), [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0), via Wikimedia Commons.

**Megachile versicolor**Leafcutter bee Cuts leaves to build cells Nests in dead wood and old stems Not scarce [Bees Hub](https://honeybeeandco.uk/bees/)[World Bee Atlas](https://honeybeeandco.uk/world-bee-atlas/)[UK Bee Map](https://honeybeeandco.uk/uk-bee-distribution/)[Plate Without Bees](https://honeybeeandco.uk/plate-without-bees/)UK Bee Species

## Brown-footed Leafcutter Bee *(Megachile versicolor)*

*Megachile versicolor* Smith, 1844 · family Megachilidae

If something has been cutting neat semicircles out of your rose leaves, a leafcutter bee is responsible, and this is one of the commoner culprits in southern Britain. She is not eating them. She is carrying them away to build cells, one piece at a time, and the finished nest is a stack of leaf cigars packed into a hollow stem. This species is the one most often mistaken for its close relative, and the difference is in its feet.[\[2\]](#r2) See where it fits among Britain’s bees on the [UK Native Bee Species Map](https://honeybeeandco.uk/uk-bee-distribution/), or among the world’s bees in the [World Bee Atlas](https://honeybeeandco.uk/world-bee-atlas/).

## Quick facts

**Common name**Brown-footed leafcutter bee **Scientific name***Megachile versicolor***Authority**Smith, 1844 **Family**Megachilidae **Lifestyle**Solitary, builds leaf-lined cells **Nests in**Dead wood, hollow twigs, old thistle stems[\[2\]](#r2)**Pollen from**Many flowers, especially daisy family[\[2\]](#r2)**Also visits**Bird’s-foot-trefoil, thistles, bramble[\[1\]](#r1)**Cuckoo***Coelioxys inermis*, a sharp-tail bee[\[1\]](#r1)**Range**Southern England to south-west Scotland, and Ireland[\[1\]](#r1)**Habitat**Heathland, brownfield, gardens, verges **UK status**Not scarce or threatened[\[1\]](#r1)RankClassificationKingdomAnimaliaPhylumArthropodaClassInsectaOrderHymenopteraFamilyMegachilidaeGenus*Megachile*Species*Megachile versicolor*## What the leaf pieces are for

A leafcutter bee builds her nest out of foliage. She finds a cavity, a beetle hole in dead wood, a hollow twig, the dry stem of a thistle, then flies out and cuts pieces from nearby leaves with her jaws, carrying each one back curled beneath her body.

The pieces are not interchangeable. Round discs form the end walls of a cell and oval ones line the sides, and the walls are built up in layers, so what looks like a rolled cigar is actually a laminated container.[\[5\]](#r5) Each finished cell gets a pollen store, one egg, and a lid. Then she starts the next, working outwards along the cavity until it is full.

There is no queen, no workers and no shared nest. One female does the surveying, the cutting, the building, the foraging and the sealing, in a working life of a few weeks.

**The rose leaf question, answered once.** The neat semicircular notches on rose, birch and similar leaves are cosmetic. The bee takes a small area from the edge of a leaf and the plant carries on photosynthesising around it. There is no insecticide worth using here, and using one would remove a pollinator in exchange for a tidier leaf margin. If you want the bees but not the visible damage, plant something else nearby with soft-edged leaves and they will usually take the easier option.

## Why it is called brown-footed

This is a species defined by comparison, because on the wing it is very close to the [patchwork leafcutter bee](https://honeybeeandco.uk/patchwork-leafcutter-bee/), *Megachile centuncularis*, which is the leafcutter most gardeners already know.

### The feet

The apical tarsal segments, the last joints of the foot, tend to be reddish brown and noticeably paler than the basitarsus above them, where most patchwork leafcutters have them darker.[\[2\]](#r2) That contrast is where the English name comes from and it is the character most likely to be visible in a photograph.

### The underside

The certain characters are on the belly. On this species the hind margin of the fourth sternite is fairly smooth, brightly shining and without small hairs, where the patchwork leafcutter’s is matt and finely haired, and the hair fringes on sternites two and three do not form the tidy, well-defined bands its relative shows.[\[2\]](#r2) Small males of *M. ligniseca* also resemble this species but have a deeply indented hind margin to the sixth tergite.[\[2\]](#r2)

### The Irish and Manx bees are a different colour

Female leafcutters carry pollen in a brush of stiff hairs under the abdomen, the scopa. On the British mainland, the scopal hairs on the fifth and sixth sternites of this species are black. On the Isle of Man and in Ireland they are extensively golden red, although the black form has been seen in Ireland too.[\[1\]](#r1)

The Irish population was considered distinct enough to be given its own subspecies name, *hiberniae*, more than a century ago.[\[3\]](#r3) Whether that holds up is a question for taxonomists, but the practical point for a recorder is simpler: a golden-bellied leafcutter in Cork and a black-bellied one in Kent may be the same species, and the field guide picture will only show you one of them.

## Where it lives, and why it is not in your bee hotel

It is frequent across southern Britain with records extending to the south-west coast of Scotland, with the bulk of them from the south east, along the south coast and up as far as Bristol. It also occurs in Ireland but appears to be absent from the Channel Islands.[\[1\]](#r1) It turns up in habitats from heathland to brownfield, formal gardens to rough verges.[\[1\]](#r1)

Here is the useful distinction for anyone who has put up a bee hotel: this species is less likely to be found in gardens than the patchwork leafcutter or *M. ligniseca*.[\[2\]](#r2) It prefers dead wood, hollow twigs and the old stems of larger herbs such as thistles, which is exactly the material tidy gardens remove.

So if you want it specifically, the tool is not another drilled block. It is leaving last year’s thistle and teasel stems standing through the following summer, and leaving dead wood where it falls. Our guide to [attracting bees to your garden](https://honeybeeandco.uk/attracting-bees-to-your-garden/) covers the rest, and [which flowers they actually use](https://honeybeeandco.uk/types-of-flowers-bees-like/) matters just as much as the nest site.

## What it feeds on, and what feeds on it

Pollen comes from a range of flowers but especially the daisy family: thistles, knapweeds and cat’s-ear.[\[2\]](#r2) Bird’s-foot-trefoil and bramble are also recorded.[\[1\]](#r1) That is a rough-ground shopping list rather than a border one, which fits a bee that nests in dead stems.

Its own cuckoo is *Coelioxys inermis*, a sharp-tail bee.[\[1\]](#r1) Sharp-tails are the leafcutters’ equivalent of the nomad bees: pointed-bodied, hard-shelled cuckoos that slip an egg into a finished cell, and the cuckoo grub destroys the host’s egg and eats the pollen store. The same arrangement appears throughout this encyclopedia with different families at each end, and it is a reliable sign of a healthy host population rather than a problem.

![Jar of HoneyBee and Co. raw Sunflower honey, 280g](https://honeybeeandco.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/sunflower-honey.jpg "2")#### Raw Sunflower Honey

From the same plant family this bee works hardest, the daisies and their relatives. Warm and buttery. 280g.

[Shop Sunflower](https://honeybeeandco.uk/sunflower-honey/)![Jar of HoneyBee and Co. raw British Wildflower honey, 280g](https://honeybeeandco.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/wildflower-honey.jpg "3")#### British Wildflower Honey

Raw honey from meadows and hedgerows, the rough flowery ground leafcutters forage. Our British honey supplier holds SALSA Certification. 280g.

[Shop Wildflower](https://honeybeeandco.uk/wildflower-honey/)![Jar of HoneyBee and Co. raw Acacia honey, 280g](https://honeybeeandco.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/acacia-honey.jpg "4")#### Raw Acacia Honey

Pale, delicate and slow to crystallise. Free UK delivery on orders of 3 or more jars, on any order type. 280g.

[Shop Acacia](https://honeybeeandco.uk/acacia-honey/)[Browse all six raw honeys in the shop](https://honeybeeandco.uk/shop/), or start at the [HoneyBee & Co. homepage](https://honeybeeandco.uk/).

## Frequently asked questions

Is this the bee cutting holes in my roses?Very likely, along with its relatives. Leafcutter bees remove neat semicircular pieces from the edges of leaves, favouring smooth-edged foliage such as rose and birch. The damage is cosmetic, the plant is unharmed, and the bee is using the material to build and line its nest cells.

How do I tell it from the patchwork leafcutter bee?Look at the feet first: the final foot segments are reddish brown and paler than the segment above, where the patchwork leafcutter’s are usually darker. For certainty you need the underside, where this species has a smooth, shining, hairless hind margin to the fourth sternite, while the patchwork leafcutter’s is matt and finely haired.

Will it nest in a bee hotel?Less readily than other leafcutters. It is recorded as less likely to occur in gardens than the patchwork leafcutter and *M. ligniseca*, and it favours dead wood, hollow twigs and the old stems of larger herbs such as thistles. Leaving dead stems standing over winter does more for this species than another drilled block.

Does it sting?Females have a sting and will use it only if handled roughly. Leafcutters are solitary, have no colony to defend and no guarding instinct, and stings are rare enough that the people who get them are usually the ones picking bees up. Males cannot sting at all.

Does it make honey?No. Each female provisions her own cells with pollen and nectar for her own larvae, with no surplus and nothing stored for a colony. Only honeybees make honey in quantity. Compare the bee families in the [World Bee Atlas](https://honeybeeandco.uk/world-bee-atlas/).

Why are Irish ones a different colour?The pollen brush on the underside of the female differs by region. On the British mainland the hairs on the fifth and sixth sternites are black; on the Isle of Man and in Ireland they are extensively golden red, though black-bellied individuals occur in Ireland too. The Irish population was named as a separate subspecies, *hiberniae*, in 1925.

What is a sharp-tail bee?A cuckoo bee of the genus *Coelioxys*, named for the pointed abdomen of the female. *Coelioxys inermis* is recorded as a cleptoparasite of this leafcutter: it lays an egg in a completed cell, and the cuckoo grub destroys the host egg and consumes the pollen store left for it.

Is it rare?No. It is not regarded as scarce or threatened and is frequent across southern Britain, though records thin out considerably north of Bristol and it reaches only the south-west coast of Scotland.

## Related species

[The lookalike**Patchwork Leafcutter Bee***Megachile centuncularis*](https://honeybeeandco.uk/patchwork-leafcutter-bee/)[Same family**Red Mason Bee***Osmia bicornis*](https://honeybeeandco.uk/red-mason-bee/)[Same family**Wool Carder Bee***Anthidium manicatum*](https://honeybeeandco.uk/wool-carder-bee/)## Sources and references

1. BWARS (Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society). Species account: *Megachile versicolor* Smith, 1844. British and Irish distribution, status, habitats, flowers visited, the mainland and Irish scopal hair forms, and *Coelioxys inermis* as cleptoparasite. [bwars.com](https://bwars.com/bee/megachilidae/megachile-versicolor)
2. Falk, S. Species account for *Megachile versicolor*, accompanying the *Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland*. Separation from *M. centuncularis* and *M. ligniseca*, pale apical tarsal segments, sternite characters, nesting substrates, pollen sources and the note that it is less likely than its relatives to occur in gardens. [Steven Falk collection](https://www.flickr.com/photos/63075200@N07/albums/72157633292020764/)
3. NBN Atlas. Species record for *Megachile versicolor* Smith, 1844, including the subspecies *Megachile versicolor* subsp. *hiberniae* Perkins, 1925. [species.nbnatlas.org](https://species.nbnatlas.org/species/NHMSYS0000876302)
4. BWARS species account: *Megachile centuncularis*, the patchwork leafcutter bee, for the comparison used throughout: nesting in wood, wall cavities and occasionally soil, flight period and shared cleptoparasite. [bwars.com](https://bwars.com/bee/megachilidae/megachile-centuncularis)
5. BWARS species account: *Megachile maritima*, for the construction detail common to the genus, round leaf pieces forming end walls and oval ones the sides, with multi-layered cell walls, after Walrecht (1958) and Grandi (1961). [bwars.com](https://bwars.com/bee/megachilidae/megachile-maritima)

![Three generations of the Nistor family beekeepers](https://honeybeeandco.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Nistor-Fanel-Nistor-Grigore-and-Nistor-Dragos.jpg "5")**Dragos Nistor**Founder, HoneyBee & Co. · Guest Lecturer, University of GreenwichHoneyBee & Co. draws on six generations of family beekeeping heritage, with honey from the Nistor family apiaries in Transylvania and from carefully chosen British producers. Our British honey supplier holds SALSA Certification, and we offer a 15% NHS Discount. Every jar is raw, unfiltered and traceable to the hive.

Published 16 September 2026. Questions are answered on our [FAQ page](https://honeybeeandco.uk/faq/).