Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Photo#44654
Eastern Carpenter Bee Hovering - Xylocopa virginica - male

Eastern Carpenter Bee Hovering - Xylocopa virginica - Male
Asheboro Zoo, North Carolina, USA
March 11, 2006
There were many carpenter bees (most were flying around the eaves of one of the restaurants) and a few were protecting certain areas by hovering in that area and chasing away any other bee that came around.

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Eastern Carpenter Bee Hovering - Xylocopa virginica - male Eastern Carpenter Bee Hovering - Xylocopa virginica - male

Moved

Way cool
Totally neat shot you have here. Congrats! :)

Truly great captures! I can'
Truly great captures! I can't imagine how you managed to hang on to the camera long enough to take that head-on shot...
--
WaikoloaBill Abides

Nice!
Great shot!!

 
ditto
I second what he said! What a great shot!

Wow!
How did you do it?

 
I don't really know...
Patience and a good camera I guess. This is just a point, focus and shoot....I don't know how to do any special settings. :) The bee was cooperative because he always came back to the same general area. I think he's thinking of chasing me out of the area in this shot.

 
...
The males of X. micans do the same thing. I have a feling that what they are doing is looking for females to grab in between filling up on nectar. Kind of the same thing some hoverflies do.
-Sean McCann


triatoma.blogspot.com

 
Staking a territory
I have seen them doing the same thing, but here in Pennsylvania they start in April rather than March. It is nice to document the time of the year and the behavior.
Check this one submitted to Flickr: Bee. Yours is better.