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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies (Hymenoptera) » Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps » Apoidea (clade Anthophila) - Bees » Cuckoo, Carpenter, Digger, Bumble, and Honey Bees (Apidae) » Carpenter and Small carpenter Bees (Xylocopinae) » Large Carpenter Bees (Xylocopa) » Subgenus Neoxylocopa (Xylocopa Subgenus Neoxylocopa) » Valley Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa sonorina)
Photo#51759
Xylocopa varipuncta - Xylocopa sonorina - female
Copyright © 2006 Hartmut Wisch

Xylocopa varipuncta - Xylocopa sonorina - Female
My garden, Pasadena, CA, Los Angeles County, California, USA
May 10, 2006
Size: ~22mm
After a mid-air collision with a smaller, but faster Carpenter Bee (X. tabaniformis), this female flew to a Sage (variety of S. greggii). There, it sipped nectar from several flowers by piercing the calyx. Next, the bee landed on a Desert Mallow (Spheralcea ambigua), extended its proboscis while fanning the galeae back and forth.
Richard Vernier suggests that this behavior serves to evaporate excess water after nectaring. (See also http://bugguide.net/node/view/51714)

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Xylocopa varipuncta - Xylocopa sonorina - female Xylocopa varipuncta - Xylocopa sonorina - female Xylocopa varipuncta - Xylocopa sonorina - female
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Contributed by Hartmut Wisch on 11 May, 2006 - 10:57am
Last updated 14 November, 2010 - 3:58pm

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