David Element
Wildlife Photography and Digital
Video Images
______________________________________________________________Hymenoptera
77 – Violet Carpenter Bees
VIOLET CARPENTER BEE Xylocopa violacea (f)
VIOLET CARPENTER BEE Xylocopa violacea (f)
VIOLET CARPENTER BEE Xylocopa violacea (f)
VIOLET CARPENTER BEE Xylocopa violacea (f)
VIOLET CARPENTER BEE Xylocopa violacea (f)
VIOLET CARPENTER BEE Xylocopa ?violacea (f)
VIOLET CARPENTER BEE Xylocopa ?violacea (f)
VIOLET
CARPENTER BEE Xylocopa violacea (m)
·
Female Violet Carpenter Bees Xylocopa violacea, family Apidae (Xylocopinae)
are huge, rather beautiful, and impressive insects that create a loud buzz when
in flight. Unless their nests are disturbed, they are highly unlikely to show
any aggression towards human observers. They will frequently visit flowers,
including Passion flowers Passiflora spp., for which they are
ideally suited as pollinators as the anthers of these flowers brush against
their bodies as they seek nectar. Personal observation suggests that only
flowers with erect anthers will be visited (each flower only blooms for a short
period before the anthers collapse following contact with pollinators), and
that the decision to visit is based on a visual recognition of the geometrical
patterns as the bees approach to feed. Note that the
vision of bees will detect pollen-guides only visible (to them) in the
ultra-violet region of the light spectrum. Previously visited flowers may also
be tagged with oily scent-markers following contact with the bees’ feet. Violet
Carpenter Bees will become covered with such copious quantities of pollen that
it is sometimes a mystery how they are able to see well enough to be able to
fly back to their nests! The first five of these photographs were taken in the Vendée, so it is most likely that they belong to
this species, but females of X.
valga are virtually indistinguishable
unless viewed under magnification. There are subtle differences between the
structures of the antenna (if they can be seen), but the latter species is
comparatively uncommon in the area where the first five of the above
photographs were taken. The next two images were captured in the South of
France. The pollen-dusted bee feeding on Hibiscus sp. cannot
realistically be identified with any certainty, but expert hymenopterists are
welcome to inform me if the penultimate image is of another species as the
basal antennal segments are visible. The identification of the male bee in the
final photograph (scanned from an old transparency) was more straightforward as
two antennal segments are reddish orange in colour, a feature unique to X. violacea. There appears to be a realistic possibility
of the Violet Carpenter Bee becoming more firmly established as a breeding
species in the UK in response to anthropogenic climate change, following in the
footsteps of other recently established Continental insects. An interesting but
very alarming phenomenon with yet unknown long-term consequences!
·
David
has posted a film illustrating the behaviour of Violet Carpenter Bees
feeding on Passion flowers here: https://youtu.belo1juVnSDpk.
·
This
scientific study, published by Salvatore Vicidomini in the Italian
Journal of Zoology, 1996, provides an interesting account of the
nesting behaviour of Violet Carpenter Bees: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/11250009609356139#:~:text=They%20usually%20nest%20in%20deadwood,to%20as%20large%20carpenter%20bees.
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