Adults are about 19–23 mm long.
Fine-art photographic collection
Xylocopa virginica
A thumb-sized bee that drills wooden nurseries, buzz-pollinates flowers and shifts between solitary and social life.
About this species
Xylocopa virginica(Linnaeus, 1771)
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Xylocopa virginica is a large carpenter bee of eastern North America. Females excavate galleries in sound but weathered wood, provision brood cells with pollen, and may nest alone or share a tunnel system with other females.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Hymenoptera · Apidae · Xylocopa
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
eastern and central North America, extending south into Central AmericaBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
eastern and central North America, extending south into Central America
Woodland edges, gardens, farms and settlements with flowers and exposed dead or structural wood.
Diurnal from spring through summer.
Adults take nectar and pollen; larvae consume pollen-and-nectar provisions sealed inside wooden brood cells.
Solitary or facultatively social, with single- and multi-female nests.
What makes this species remarkable?
A female cuts a round entrance and then turns ninety degrees to excavate long galleries, partitioning the tunnel into a sequence of brood cells.
The species is socially flexible: one female may nest alone, while other nests contain several females with a dominant breeder and inactive or guarding nestmates.
It can buzz-pollinate flowers by vibrating its flight muscles, yet it also sometimes cuts through long flower tubes to steal nectar without touching the pollen.