World Bee Day: Willughby's Leaf-cutting Bee (Megachile willughbiella)

20th May 2025 is World Bee Day! Did you know that there is a species of bee named after one of Middleton Hall’s residents? In 1802, the species Megachile willughbiella was named in honour of Francis Willughby FRS. It is commonly known as Willughby’s leaf-cutting bee and Francis was the first person to describe it and its life-cycle.

On 5th May 1670, at a meeting of the Royal Society, some specimens were shown of what was thought to be worms wrapped in leaves and lodged in several channels in a piece of willow wood. As their most accomplished specialist in insects at that time, one of the specimens was handed to Willughby to investigate.

Megachile willughbiella, 2015. Photograph take by Line Sabroe from Denmark, CC-BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The leaf-wrapped specimens were described as each being about an inch long and comprised 12, 14 or 16 leaf pieces and one after another were lodged inside the wood bore. Willughby wrote that he was very intrigued and excited by this. He then introduced his specimen to the grounds at Middleton but, in August 1670, Willughby also went to Alstrop, near Northampton, to investigate them in their original habitat. At Alstrop, John Ray identified that the leaves used by the bees were rose leaves. They also observed a bee bite a piece out of a rose leaf and fly away with it in its mouth.

Willughby made numerous reports about this species to the Royal Society, including writing letters and drawing sketches. He identified that each of, what he called, the “cartrages” contained a single bee larva and within the wood they were orientated in line with the grain of the wood. The cartrages contained a substance that had the consistency of jelly and was a colour between the syrup of violets and the conserve of red roses. He added that it had an avid taste and an unpleasant smell.

In July 1671, Willughby wrote that the cartrages at Middleton were hatching and every day a new bee emerged and he could hear them gnawing their way out of the wood before he could see them. On his deathbed the following year, it was for these insects that Willughby lamented not being able to see them hatch again.

Today, it is known that this species collects pollen from a wide variety of plants but the favoured pollen is from Campanulaceae (bellflowers). It nests in wood in the manner that Willughby described and can be seen between June and August. Today, it is considered to be the most commonly found leafcutter bee in England, although the further north the less frequently it is observed. Recent surveys in areas near Middleton have continued to record the presence of this species.

Further Reading: Tim Birkhead, The Wonderful Mr Willughby, 2018.

"Extracts of two letters, written by Francis Willoughby Esquire, to the Publisher, from Astrop, August 19th and from Midleton, Sept. 2d. 1670 containing his observations on the insects and cartrages, described in the precedent accompt", Philosophical Transactions, 1670. vol. 5 (65), pp.2100–2102. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1670.0068

"An other extract of a letter written from Midleton in Warwickshire to the Publisher July 10^th by Francis Willughby Esquire; about the hatching of a kind of bee, lodged in Old Willows", Philosophical Transactions, 1671, vol. 6 (74), p.2221. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1671.0034

Author - Debbie Jordan, Middleton Hall Volunteer.

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