Adults are commonly about 20–25 mm long.
Fine-art photographic collection
Xylocopa caerulea
A giant carpenter bee clothed in genuinely blue pigment rather than the usual structural metallic trick.
About this species
Blue Carpenter Bee
Xylocopa caerulea(Fabricius, 1804)
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Xylocopa caerulea is a large Asian carpenter bee. Females are covered in intense blue hairs and excavate brood tunnels in dead wood or stems, where each cell receives a mass of pollen and nectar.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Hymenoptera · Apidae · Xylocopa
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
South and Southeast Asia from India and southern China to IndonesiaBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
South and Southeast Asia from India and southern China to Indonesia
Tropical and subtropical forest edge, gardens, plantations and places with dead wood or bamboo.
Diurnal flower visitor and important pollinator of wild plants.
Pollen and nectar.
Primarily solitary, although more than one female may share or compete for nesting sites.
What makes this species remarkable?
Optical analysis showed that the female’s blue hairs contain a true blue-absorbing pigment enhanced by scattering granules, not merely an iridescent surface effect.
The sexes are dramatically different: females carry brilliant blue hair across the head and body, while males have a much browner or greenish coat.
A female cuts a tunnel into dead plant material and builds a private sequence of pollen-provisioned cells, each sealed behind a partition for one offspring.
More photographs
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