Tropical Carpenter Bee
Sep 27, 2015. The bee was circling around and coming back to the same post where it would rest for 1-2 min then she would go again. The post was near the swimming pool which makes me think she may have preferred to rest in a sunny spot next to the water. The tropical carpenter bee is a very large, robust, solitary bee. Carpenter bees mate in flight. They can have more than two generations per year but this depends on the availability of floral resources in their habitat. Tropical carpenter bees often choose useful structural woods as nesting sites, as they are able to burrow through it with their powerful mandibles. Carpenter bees pollinate passion-fruit flowers in SE Asia.
Habitat: Garden in the forest of Sukau area, Sabah.
''Xylocopa latipes'', the tropical carpenter bee, is a species of carpenter bee widely dispersed throughout Southeast Asia. As its name suggests, this bee inhabits forests in warm tropical climates and constructs nests by burrowing into wood. It often makes long deep tunnels in wooden rafters, fallen trees, telephone poles and the like, but is not found in living trees.
