Excavator: Ground. The following account is based on Plateaux-Quénu and Plateaux & Packer (1989). Females sometimes nest in extensive aggregations in hard, sparsely vegetated patches of soil. Most nests are inhabited by only a single female; multi-female nests are uncommon. Cells are excavated singly at the end of lateral burrows and, when provisioned, are sealed with plugs of soil. A nest, together with larvae and pupae, are figured by the above authors.
The above authors consider this species to be largely solitary, although it exhibits a reduced size in the daughters of overwintered females and a female biased sex ratio, both of which are characters associated with eusociality. In France overwintered females survive long enough to fly with their offspring. Unusually, newly emerged males make orientation flights and return to roost in their natal nests.
Knerer (1968) considers the species to be eusocial, producing a summer brood of workers, although Westrich (1989) suggests the species is solitary.