Eight-toothed Cuckoo Leaf-cutter Bee

The Eight-toothed Cuckoo Leaf-cutter Bee (Coelioxys octodentatus) is a cuckoo bee in the family Megachilidae, found in the San Francisco Bay Area.

This species is one of the most common cuckoo bees, found frequenting gardens where members of its host species, Megachile are present.

As a cuckoo bee, it invades the nests of leafcutter bees and deposits its eggs inside. When the cuckoo larvae hatch, they eat the host’s eggs and devour the stores of nectar and pollen left by the mother leafcutter for her offspring.

Eight-toothed cuckoo leaf-cutter bees lack pollen-collecting scopal hairs, because they do not collect pollen. They do however drink nectar from flowers.