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Eastern Carpenter Bee
Xylocopa virginica
39.8478, -86.1473
Field Notes
Description:
The Eastern Carpenter bee is a primarily black and mostly hairless bee. A tuft of yellow hair covers their thorax except for a small bald black spot at the center. Their abdomens are black and hairless with a smooth and shiny sheen. In size they are similar to bumblebees. This particular bee is a female, which are distinguished from males by a wider head, plumper body and the lack of a white spot at the center of the face.
Habitat:
While the genus Xylocopa stretches across many continents, the Xylocopa Viginica is only found in the eastern portion of North America.
Carpenter bees tend to make their homes in dead wood, bamboo, lumber, or in human wood structures such as log houses.
Notes:
I observed these bees cutting open tiny holes at the base of long tube flowers to suck out the nectar rather than going into the flowers face first like other bees. This behavior is referred to as "nectar robbing". Because of this behavior the plants that these bees feed on often produce less fruits and seeds since the bees are not often coming into contact with the plants reproductive parts in order to pollinate them.
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