Carpenter bee (female)

Size between 2 and 2.5 cm. As usual among Xylocopa species, X. frontalis does not differ morphologically from the others, but in pigmentation, in which the male is completely yellow with some darker bands in the abdominal region and the female is black, with reddish or red stripes. Like the rest of the genus, this bee has a solitary character and does not form colonies, unlike other Hymenoptera (bees, wasps). However, it still shares the instinct to build wooden nests with almost all the other members: it digs cylindrical holes about 1.30 cm wide and up to 25.4 cm deep. At the bottom of these nests the female deposits a ball of pollen paste moistened with saliva, in which she lays a single egg. Then it covers this paste with sawdust again agglutinated with oral secretions, thus forming a type of cell. This process is repeated, placing each new cell before the previous one, until the tunnel is full. Individuals go through larvae and pupa stages to the imago state. Those closest to the opening complete their metamorphosis first, emerging first from the tunnel, followed in succession by the others.