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Eastern Carpenter Bee
xylocopa virginica
33.7491, -84.3902
Field Notes
Description:
It is often mistaken for a large bumblebee species, as they are similar in size and coloring. They can be important pollinators, especially of open-faced flowers, though they are also known to "rob" nectar by boring holes in the sides of flowers with deep corollas (thus not accomplishing pollination). They sometimes bore holes in wood dwellings and can become minor pests. They use chewed wood bits to form partitions between the cells in the nest.
Habitat:
Female carpenter bees make nests by tunneling into wood. They make an initial hole in an overhang, eaves trough, or similar structure, tunneling upward if the grain is horizontal and sideways if the grain is vertical. Then, they make one or more tunnels at a right angle. The final nest usually resembles a T and can have up to three T-shaped layers. Unlike termites, carpenter bees (also called woodcutters) do not eat wood.
Notes:
In the eastern U.S., Xylocopa virginica overwinter as adults inside the same tunnels where they hatched that summer. In spring, they awake.
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