Great Carpenter Bee - Xylocopa (Koptortosoma) aruana
Family ANTHOPHORIDAE
This page contains pictures and information about Great Carpenter Bees that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Body length 25mm
- Great Carpenter Bee is the largest bee in Australia. They are very large and hairy bees, with black abdomen and yellow thorax. Wings are dark brown in colour. They are solitary, i.e., living on its own, not like the Honey Bees that living in group.
- In late spring 2002, we found this large bee resting on a footpath in the bushland, could not fly nor walk, seemed having some problems. We took it home, for the next day it became normal. We let it go. It flied away and disappeared within seconds. Later we learnt from the reference information that the bee could be just hatched from the pupa borrow.
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- Great Carpenter Bees feed on pollen. Females make tunnel and lay eggs in decaying wood, including dry flower sticks of grass-trees Xanthorrhoea.
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- Reference:
- 1. Native Bees of the Sydney region, a field guide - Anne Dollin, Michael Batley, Martyn Robinson & Brian Faulkner, Australian Native Bee Research Centre.
- 2. Wildlife of Greater Brisbane - New edition, Published by Queensland Museum 2007, p119.
