Scientific name: Arthropoda: Insecta: Hymenoptera: Apidae: Xylocopa virginica
Common Name: Large Carpenter Bee, King Bee, Virginia Carpenter Bee
Country: USA
State/District: DC
County: not applicable
Date: 15 April 2002
Photographer: D. S. Kjar
Identifier: D. S. Kjar
Collector: not applicable
Location: Georgetown University Campus Observatory Garden
Keywords: A black bee black insect FEar GU pollination pollinator yellow bee 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.
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.
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