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| Arthropoda: Insecta: Hymenoptera: Apidae: Xylocopa virginica | [return to Home Page] |
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Scientific name: Arthropoda: Insecta: Hymenoptera: Apidae: Xylocopa virginica Common Name: Large Carpenter Bee, King Bee, Virginia Carpenter Bee
Country: USA
Photographer: D. S. Kjar
Identifier: E. M. Barrows Location: Georgetown University Campus Ecology Laboratory Butterfly Garden Additional Information: |
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Click on image to enlarge. 
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Scientific name: Arthropoda: Insecta: Hymenoptera: Apidae: Xylocopa virginica Common Name: Large Carpenter Bee, King Bee, Virginia Carpenter Bee
Country: USA
Photographer: E. M. Barrows
Identifier: E. M. Barrows |
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Click on image to enlarge. 
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Scientific name: Arthropoda: Insecta: Hymenoptera: Apidae: Xylocopa virginica Common Name: Large Carpenter Bee, King Bee, Virginia Carpenter Bee
Country: USA
Photographer: D. S. Kjar
Identifier: D. S. Kjar Location: Georgetown University Campus Observatory Garden Additional Information: This is a series of photographs of male and female Virginia Carpenter Bee interactions, some described in Barrows (1983) and taken at his study site in 2002. The first picture is a female that has landed on an old wooden porch. The second picture is of the male (identified by a yellow patch on his face) that has been defending the porch from other males. He is hovering in the center of the photograph over a drainpipe. The porch in the background is the same one where the female rested in the first photo. In the third picture, the male is approaching the female, hovering slightly over and behind her. The fourth picture, the male lands on top of the female and she soon flew away grappling with him. In the final photograph, two bees are possibly mating in the grass after falling from the air. The male might not be that same one in the previous photos, because another male joined the pair soon after female took flight. The third bee (male) hovered just outside of the picture frame when I took it.
D. S. K.
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Scientific name: Arthropoda: Insecta: Hymenoptera: Apidae: Xylocopa virginica Common Name: Large Carpenter Bee, King Bee, Virginia Carpenter Bee
Country: USA
Photographer: Susan Hitch
Identifier: E. M. Barrows Location: Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve Boardwalk Additional Information: This new female Virginia Carpenter Bee is taking nectar from Apios americana Medic. (= Groundnut, Wild Bean) in August at DMWP. This native vine and the alien Porcelainberry are entwining a branch of Ulmus americana (American Elm). In both images, you can see her mouthparts at the side of a flower. She is either biting a hole into the side of the flower or taking nectar through a hole that she or another animal (probably another Virginia Carpenter Bee) made. An animal's taking nectar through a bitten hole in a flower is "nectar robbing" which is common in Carpenter Bees. The holes that Carpenter Bees (and some bumble bees) make in flowers allow Honey Bees to rob nectar also because Honey Bees do not bite holes in flowers. E. M. B. A few references on the Virginia Carpenter Bee Barrows, E. M. 1980. Results of a survey of damage caused by the carpenter bee Xylocopa virginica (Hymenoptera: Anthophoridae). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 82: 44–47. Barrows, E. M. 1980. Robbing of exotic plants by introduced carpenter and honey bees in Hawaii with comparative notes. Biotropica 12: 23–29. Barrows, E. M. 1983. Male territoriality in the carpenter bee Xylocopa virginica virginica. Animal Behaviour 31: 806–813. |
