According to scientists, the first insects, which belong to the order Hymenoptera, lived in the Jurassic period. In other words, they have been living on our planet for at least 150 million years. If we talk about bees, then they appeared no more than 80 million years ago. They evolved in parallel with the development of flowering plants, and currently there are at least 20 thousand species of bees. All of them are divided into 9 families. One of them is anthophorids, which include carpenter bees. Today, these insects are listed in the Red Book.
A purple carpenter bee (xylocope) is, one might say, a heavyweight, because it is twice as large as a regular honey bee. And her buzz is comparable to the flight of a flock of beetles. She does not pay much attention to people and, even if she encounters a person, she will not release a sting, but will calmly go on. A carpenter bee (photo of an insect can be seen above) has large black eyes and beautiful wings, shining with a blue-violet shine.
In the spring of these insects most often can be found on white acacia, fruit trees and flowering willow. In the summer, they prefer flowers and red clover. Carpenter bees collect pollen and transfer it on the hairs of their legs to the nests. Flight by flight, they put their burden at the bottom of the cell and moisten it with nectar a little. Then they lay an egg there and build the next bulkhead over this structure, so it turns out the bottom for the next cell. Thus, the female bee fills the nest, then closes the entrance and leaves it forever. And next year, young carpenter bees will fly out of it, flashing their blue-purple wings.
So why are they called carpenters? And everything is quite simple: these bees use only wooden objects for their nests. A bee eats long strokes in the wood, which are then used as nests. They like to dwell on the edges and glades of old forests, they love to nest in wood storages and telegraph poles. Most often they can be found during the active summer from May to June. Carpenter bees are not true honey plants, they are more likely loners, since they do not form large families with uterus.
Purple bee carpenters are similar in their mating behavior to some birds. The males choose the most elevated places and tirelessly patrol, guarding their territory from other males. Females at this time also climb higher. They meet with males on tops of hills, bushes or trees. For their nests, xylopods prefer trees that have loose wood, especially they love elderberry and sumac. In addition, they can use human housing for their nests. It can be beams, poles, roofing, fences (especially already old and rotten ones). There were many attempts to tame this bee in order to breed it like an ordinary honey bee, but all of them were unsuccessful.
The habitat of carpenter bees covers Transcaucasia, Central Asia, Central and Western Europe, the Middle East and Mongolia. In our country, they live in the North Caucasus, in the south of the Stavropol and Krasnodar Territories, in the Tula, Leningrad, Pskov, Arkhangelsk and Moscow regions. They are also found in Tuva, the South Urals and the Lower Volga.
