Adults are usually about 14–20 mm long.
Fine-art photographic collection
Xylocopa iris
A small carpenter bee that turns a dead pithy stem into a vertical apartment block and deliberately shortens the structure above it.
About this species
Xylocopa iris(Christ, 1791)
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Xylocopa iris is a small Mediterranean carpenter bee specialised for nesting in dead hollow or pith-filled plant stems. Females excavate a single unbranched tunnel and arrange brood cells in a linear series.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Hymenoptera · Apidae · Xylocopa
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
the Mediterranean region and eastwards through western and central AsiaBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
the Mediterranean region and eastwards through western and central Asia
Warm dry grassland, scrub and field margins containing standing dead stems.
Adults fly from spring into late summer and visit a broad range of Mediterranean flowers.
Pollen and nectar, with recorded use of Apiaceae, Asteraceae and Fabaceae.
Solitary.
What makes this species remarkable?
Unlike the large wood-boring carpenter bees, a female selects a dead pith-filled or hollow herb stem and creates a single unbranched nest inside it.
She may cut the stem down to roughly 20–40 centimetres above ground, apparently reducing wind leverage before sealing the open top with a thick pith plug.
Brood cells are stacked in a vertical line between the entrance and the upper plug, turning one narrow stem into a complete multi-room nursery.
Sources and scientific references
- GBIF — taxon record/search for Xylocopa iris
- Catalogue of Life — taxon search for Xylocopa iris
- USDA Exotic Bee ID — Copoxyla nesting biology
- Natural History Museum Vienna — Xylocopa iris nesting requirements
- Entomological Research Society — carpenter bees of Turkey
- Transactions of the American Entomological Society — larval provisions