Pubescent Carpenter Bee

Xylocopa pubescens · Order: Hymenoptera · Family: Apidae

Can damage your home. It can damage wooden parts of houses and other structures.

Source: Wikipedia

Pubescent Carpenter Bee
Photo: Gidip, CC BY

Females are large, shiny, black with yellow head markings, while males are smaller with narrow heads and yellow hair covering their bodies. They build nests in dead or soft wood, including timber in buildings, which can harm wooden structures. Their range spans the Eastern Mediterranean, North Africa, the Middle East, Cape Verde to South Asia, and they forage on many plants for nectar and pollen.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

Females have black bodies with yellow markings on the head. Males have a narrow head and are covered in yellow hair.

Source: Wikipedia

Size

Females are larger than males.

Source: Wikipedia

Is it a pest in the house?

Nests are made in dead or soft wood, including wood used in buildings, which can damage structures.

Source: Wikipedia

What it eats

They collect nectar for bee bread and pollen to feed their offspring, visiting many plant species.

Source: Wikipedia

Life cycle

Colonies can start from early March to early November, with new adults emerging from May through November.

Source: Wikipedia

When you see it

Breeding runs from early March to early November, with most mating in spring and some in fall.

Source: Wikipedia

Same family (Apidae)

Western Honey BeeWestern Honey BeeApis melliferaCan stingCommon Eastern Bumble BeeCommon Eastern Bumble BeeBombus impatiensCan stingEastern Carpenter BeeEastern Carpenter BeeXylocopa virginicaCan stingBrown-belted Bumble BeeBrown-belted Bumble BeeBombus griseocollisCommon Carder Bumble BeeCommon Carder Bumble BeeBombus pascuorumBuff-tailed Bumble BeeBuff-tailed Bumble BeeBombus terrestris

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylocopa_pubescens

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.

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