365 Urban Species. #159: Carpenter Bee

[urbpan]

Photo by cottonmanifesto. Location: rose bushes in front of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston.

Urban species #159: Carpenter bee Xylocopa virginica

Carpenter bees require exposed dead wood in which to excavate nests and lay their eggs. Fortunately for them, humans like to build with this substance, and so have greatly increased the amount of potential carpenter bee nest sites. The female chews her way into the wood, working with the grain whenever possible, and lays deposits her eggs, along with food packets of flower pollen and nectar, into the cavity.

Carpenter bees are considered both important pollinators and destructive pests. They can be frightening to some people, as they are quite large bees, but they are slow to rile and rarely sting. They are easy to confuse with bumblebees, which differ in that they are social, nest in the ground, and have yellow fur on their abdomen (carpenter bees have yellow fur only on their thoraxes, and have shiny black abdomens). Carpenter bees prefer to build nests in soft woods (mostly conifers), and so Boston's miles of blocks of triple-deckers made of eastern white pine provide abundant breeding space. And flowering ornamental shrubs and weeds are an ample supply of food for this urban species.






This carpenter bee circles through the stamens of this rose blossom, collecting pollen on its body.

Comments

[larksdream]

Most people are scared of them, but they've never stung us - not even the cats, and the cats would LOVE to catch one and try to eat it. They are curious, though, and have been known to "buzz" people, just hover very close and peer at them.

Those are the males, who are quite territorial... but ironically, they can't actually sting!

[sin-agua.livejournal.com]

So I've heard. :)