Editorial photo #10467092 Human Interest

Xylocopa Latipes

The tropical carpenter bee (Xylocopa latipes) is a species of carpenter bee widely dispersed throughout Southeast Asia. It is a very large, robust, solitary bee. It is shiny, fully black in colour with fuscous metallic blue-green or purple wings in the sunlight. The tropical carpenter bee is probably the largest Xylocopa known and among the largest bees in the world. 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. It has a loud and distinctive, low-pitched buzzing that can be heard as it flies between flowers or perches. It is relatively unaggressive and rarely stings. In Urban areas, these bees can become attached to certain perches, returning to them day after day, even after several generations. An injured tropical carpenter bee sits on the road at Tehatta, West Bengal, India on september 05, 2023. (Photo by Soumyabrata Roy/NurPhoto)