English Name: Tropical Carpenter Bees

Scientific Name: Xylocopa latipes

Origin: Arfar, West Papua, Indonesia

Size: 1-1.5 inch (wingspan)

Rarity Level: ★

Description: Tropical carpenter bees (Xylocopa latipes) occurs throughout southeast Asia, and your insect in the cube is from Indonesia. As the name refers, they inhabits in tropical forest, and constructs nests by burrowing into wood. They often make long deep tunnels in wooden rafters, fallen trees, telephone poles, and anything like that, but do not occur in living trees.

They are very large, robust, solitary bees. It has shiny black body with metallic blue-green or purple wings in sunlight. Tropical Carpenter Bees (Xylocopa latipes) is probably the largest bee species among carpenter bees. It has a loud and distinctive, low-pitched buzzing that can be heard as it flies around.

Carpenter bees are commercially used in the Philippines to pollinate passion fruit flowers. They also naturally pollinate flowers in Indonesia, Malaysia, and many Southeast Asian countries. Also, Carpenter Bees often emerge in time of when passion fruit flowers bloom, which indicates an evolving relationship between the two species of insects and plants.

*Information may be changed or updated without notice