Unidentified Megachile bee

[Africa]

Any ideas of what species this is?

[colinaj]

Is it the leaf cutter bee? are your rose leaves showing oval cuts?
seems to be the only one I can get when resting like that.

[eucera]

It's a leaf-cutter bee (Megachile), that's for sure, and a female at that. We have several species in UK (8 species + 1 doubtful record of a 9th species over 100 years ago).

Identification to species level is exteremely difficult at the best of times, but I'm afraid that it simply isn't possible from this photo, as the important characters one would need to look at are not visible (The dentition of the mandibles, the nature of the hairs on the last, upper, abdominal segment, the coloration (segment by segment) of the pollen carrying hairs on the underside of the abdomen).

It is also a massive help to know where and when photos were taken and some indication of habitat if we are to stand a chance of narrowing down the list of suspects.

[Africa]

It was photographed resting in my garden in Hull. My roses are not attacked, though!

[eucera]

It is probably (but not 100% certainly) M. willughbiella, which is a common garden species over much of Britain. Your locality information allowed me to discount no less than 5 of the known species from UK

[Africa]

Thank you Eucera! I must remember to quote location and habitat in future posts!