Bug FAQOrange-tipped Woodborer
Lithurgopsis apicalis · Order: Hymenoptera · Family: Megachilidae
The orange-tipped woodborer is a bee in the family Megachilidae. It builds its nests in agave stalks and adults often visit flowers of cacti, mallows and daisies.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
Lithurgopsis apicalis is called the orange-tipped woodborer.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
Nests are made inside the stalks of agave plants.
Source: Wikipedia
Life cycle
It is a wood-boring bee species in the Megachilidae family.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 13 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, California, Texas, Nevada, Wyoming.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Status: native in North America; native in United States. Source: iNaturalist
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Questions people ask
What flowers do orange-tipped woodborers visit?
Adults often visit flowers of cactaceae, malvaceae and asteraceae.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Megachilidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithurgopsis_apicalis
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-23.