Taxonomy
Family: Apidae
Subfamily: Xylocopinae
Tribe: Xylocopini
Genus: Xylocopa
Subgenus: Xylomelissa, Hurd and Moure 1963Hurd and Moure 1963:
Hurd, P.D. and J.S. Moure. 1963. A Classification of the Large Carpenter Bees (Xylocopine) (Hymenoptera: Apoidea). University of California Publications in Entomology (Vol. 29). Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 365 pp.
Common name: Carpenter bee
Background
Xylocopa (
Xylomelissa) have a black to brown shiny
integumentintegument:
a tough, protective outer layer
. Some members of this subgenus have red to yellow
pubescencepubescence:
short, fine hair
on their hind legs. The females tend to be darker in color overall. Their
integumentintegument:
a tough, protective outer layer
is black to dark brown. Their
pubescencepubescence:
short, fine hair
is black to dark brown and rarely blonde. It covers their legs and the underside of their thorax and abdomen. The female’s wings range from medium brown to dark brown and show a violet iridescent color. Males of
Xylocopa (
Xylomelissa) are lighter in color than their female counterparts. They tend to have similar colors of integuments as females, but sometimes the
integumentintegument:
a tough, protective outer layer
is lighter than the female of the same species. Males also tend to have yellow to cream colored
integumentintegument:
a tough, protective outer layer
on their faces. Males have a dark orange to yellow to white colored
pubescencepubescence:
short, fine hair
that covers their legs, thorax, and abdomen. The
pubescencepubescence:
short, fine hair
is thinner on the top side of the abdomen. The wings range from reddish light brown to nearly yellow. Their wings have a violet iridescent color (
Pauly et al. 2018Pauly et al. 2018:
Pauly, A., Z.A. Hora, D.N. Wayessa, K. Amberbir. 2018. The Xylocopa Latreille, 1802, of Ethiopia (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Belgian Journal of Entomology 62:1-30.).
Diversity
Xylocopa (
Xylomelissa) contains 65 species (
Michener 2007Michener 2007:
Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World (2nd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.).
Distribution
Xylocopa (
Xylomelissa) occurs throughout sub-Saharan Africa (
Michener 2007Michener 2007:
Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World (2nd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.).
Distribution map generated by Discover Life -- click on map for details, credits, and terms of use.
Host associations
Most members of the genus
Xylocopa are generalist pollinators, meaning that they will pollinate almost any flower that they can fit into. Carpenter bees may also engage in nectar robbing, a behavior in which a hole is bored into the base of a flower to get access to the nectar of the flower (
Keasar 2010Keasar 2010:
Keasar, T. 2010. Large Carpenter Bees as Agricultural Pollinators. Psyche doi:10.1155/2010/927463.). It is supposed that
Xylocopa (
Xylomelissa) is also a generalist based on records of flowers visited (
Pauly et al. 2018Pauly et al. 2018:
Pauly, A., Z.A. Hora, D.N. Wayessa, K. Amberbir. 2018. The Xylocopa Latreille, 1802, of Ethiopia (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Belgian Journal of Entomology 62:1-30.).
Nesting behavior
Most members of
Xylocopa bore into wood stems and branches in order to construct nests. Some species show specific preferences for nest sites, but most do not or have not had preferences reported (
Michener 2007Michener 2007:
Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World (2nd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.).
Xylocopa (
Xylomelissa) in particular, is known to build nests with a large number of cells, ranging from 7-10 cells per nest (
Vicidomini 2009Vicidomini 2009:
Vicidomini, S. 2009. Biology of Xylocopa violacea (Hymenoptera): In‐nest ethology. Italian Journal of Zoology 63(3):237-242.).
Known invasives
There are no known invasives.
