Bee–Carpenter Common - Simple Woodworker Bee

The carpenter bee - Xylocopa alga Gerst.

This insect is one of the giant bees, about the size of a large bumblebee, with wings that have a dark purple sheen and a shiny black abdomen.

The Latin name - Xylocopa - was given to this bee by scientists back in the early last century. The ability of this insect to work with wood, that is, to "carpenter," is reflected in the Russian name - carpenter bee. By the way, the French and English names also translate as "carpenter."

This bee builds its nest by boring tunnels in the dead wood of old trees, poles, and wooden structures made by humans. It uses its jaws and front legs as tools.

Xylocopa often settles in wood infected with fungi: being decayed by the mycelium, it is significantly easier for the bee's jaws to work with.

The carpenter bee drills a long channel in the trunk, then begins to construct chambers for future larvae. In each of the cells, it places a food supply - a pile of pollen and a drop of honey. A tiny egg is also laid here. One little ball serves as food for the larva throughout its growth, so the bee collects a lot of pollen and nectar. For collecting pollen, it has special pollen pockets and grooves in its exoskeleton. To gather nectar, it sometimes drills into flowers with long corollas, literally sucking out every last drop.

After this, each cell is sealed with a sticky mass made from the bee's saliva and wood shavings, leaving only an air passage. For two to three weeks, the mother bee guards her nest, after which she goes on a journey. The larvae grow throughout the summer, pupate in August-September, and become imago in the fall. They emerge only in early spring, boring through the partitions. The adult bee overwinters, seeking shelter in empty nests, the tunnels of sawflies, abandoned hives, and crevices in trees and wooden structures.

Usually, only one bee from the new generation remains in the nest. Thus, several generations of bees can live in one nest.

When the entire tunnel is filled with similar "rooms," it resembles a multi-story house. In the absence of wood, the carpenter bee can also use dead parts of plants with tubular stems, such as hogweed, nettle, or burdock. One of the ancient subgenera, Proxylocopa, even digs burrows directly in the damp soil.

Xylocopes are solitary bees.

This means that they do not build hives and do not form a strict hierarchy with a queen. Each bee is an independent unit: it provides for itself in terms of food and shelter and independently cares for its offspring. After a few weeks, it leaves the larvae to fend for themselves. The male is needed only for fertilization - its lifespan barely exceeds two weeks.

The sting of a carpenter bee (rather, the jab from its stinger - bees are generally not prone to biting) is stronger and more painful than that of a honeybee and causes roughly the same harm - the glands at the base of the stinger contain venom that causes painful swelling. This will only cause discomfort to a healthy person, while it can provoke a severe reaction, itching, abscesses, and Quincke's edema in allergic individuals.

However, it is not due to stings that some gardeners dislike wood bees. By settling in wooden structures and supports, the bees bore long tunnels. And while one nest in fresh wood will not cause any problems (more on that below), in old wood it can become the last straw.

Adding to this the bees' attachment to one place over many generations, as well as various wood-boring beetles, one can end up with a beam riddled with tunnels.

Moreover, the bee can carry with it fungal spores that will sprout into mold literally from inside the wood. Empty nests become shelters for other bees, wasps, as well as nests for woodpeckers and other insects.

To get rid of them, gardeners construct special traps and also use specific insecticides.

Xylocopes are quite often found in parks and gardens. They land on chrysanthemums, golden-yellow zinnia baskets, and other garden flowers. The common carpenter bee has been recorded on 60 species of flowering plants. They most frequently visit imported (southern) flowers. This interest in foreign plants and the magnificent appearance of xylocopes testify to their distant ancestors, and the homeland of carpenter bees is the tropics.

Distribution: Western, Northern, Inner Tien Shan, the territory of the Issyk-Kul basin, the Prefergana regions of Kyrgyzstan.

INSECTS OF KYRGYZSTAN