IN THE FACE OF DECLINING HONEY BEE AND WILD BEE POPULATIONS WORLDWIDE, IT IS ESSENTIAL TO IMPROVE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF ALTERNATIVE BEE POLLINATORS. ONE SUCH POLLINATOR IS THE ALFALFA LEAFCUTTING BEE (MEGACHILE ROTUNDATA, ALCBS), WHICH ARE THE MOST ECONOMICALLY VALUABLE SOLITARY BEES MANAGED FOR POLLINATION SERVICES. ONE OF THE LARGEST COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH USING ALCBS IN AGRICULTURE IS THE UNSUCCESSFUL REARING OF BROOD FOR USE IN THE FOLLOWING YEAR, LARGELY DUE TO A SECOND GENERATION EMERGENCE THAT OCCURS WHEN UP TO 50% OF BEES COMPLETE DEVELOPMENT WITHOUT OVERWINTERING IN DIAPAUSE. THE LONG-TERM GOAL OF THIS RESEARCH IS TO UNDERSTAND AND SHARE HOW THE HEALTH OF ONE GENERATION OF POLLINATORS INFLUENCES THE POLLINATION POTENTIAL OF THE NEXT GENERATION. ACCORDINGLY, WE WILL ELUCIDATE FACTORS THAT MEDIATE VARIATION IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF ALCBS. WE AIM TO ACHIEVE THIS GOAL BY MEETING THE FOLLOWING OBJECTIVES WITH ALCB FIELD AND LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS:1. DETERMINE HOW MATERNAL NUTRITIONAL CONDITION INFLUENCES REPRODUCTIVE STRATEGY, OFFSPRING DEVELOPMENTAL PATTERNS, AND OFFSPRING SURVIVAL.2. IDENTIFY THE MECHANISMS FOR MATERNAL EFFECTS ON OFFSPRING PHENOTYPE, INCLUDING VARIATION IN OFFSPRING PROVISIONING AND MATERNAL INHERITANCE OF RNA TRANSCRIPTS IN OOCYTES.RESULTS STEMMING FROM THESE EXPERIMENTS WILL ALLOW FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOLUTIONS TO BEE LOSS ISSUES ON A LOCAL SCALE, BY PROVIDING INFORMATION ABOUT THE EFFECTS OF VARIATION IN COMMONLY USED MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND MATERNAL INVESTMENT ON POLLINATOR POPULATIONS. OUR RESULTS WILL ALSO PROVIDE ANSWERS TO CRITICAL UNANSWERED QUESTIONS ABOUT SOLITARY BEE BIOLOGY, WHILE ALSO ADVANCING THE FIELDS OF INSECT PHYSIOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY.