A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Xylocopa sp.
Growing to around 18mm long, Great Carpenter Bees, Australia's largest, are impressive natives (carpenter refers to their skills in carving out wood for nest hollows). Females and males are very different - females having bright yellow, fluffy thorax and less hair on shiny blue/black abdomen; males being fluffier and mostly brown in colour. Not to be confused with feral Bumblebees which have hairy abdomen and large stripe amongst the yellow. Great Carpenter Bees also buzz very loudly as they fly and forage. Great pollinators as they feed on nectar and gather associated pollen.
Found in Queensland, NSW, WA and NT preferring the warmer regions.
Spotted on Aug 9, 2013
Submitted on Dec 9, 2013
2 Comments
I've been out again this morning and the trees are alive with these bees and many others, so hopefully will have more decent images to share later. I just wish they'd stay still for a bit longer while the camera gets a good focus! Interesting to see how they all interact with each other.
Excellent. I didn't know Aus had any of these.