(Wikipedia image by Matthew Field.)
I’ve noticed this bee several times over the past few years: gigantic (bumblebee-sized or bigger), a beautiful golden color all over, with a habit of hovering for minutes at a time, pausing a few seconds in one place, moving a few feet, hovering again, and repeating, in a circuit that causes it to cruise a limited area over and over. Every time I’ve seen it engaged in this “hover patrol” it has been near some flowers being visited by ordinary honeybees, but I’ve never seen the giant golden bee actually land. I might be reading too much into it, but I get the impression that the bee is aware of me; it seems to face me and check me out, then decides I’m uninteresting and moves on.
I’ve seen this bee in our front yard in Carp, and outside the office building where I work in Santa Monica. (I’ve mentioned my ridiculously long commute, right?) Last Sunday William and I watched one patrolling outside some condos on Sandyland Road, as we walked from the State Beach campground (where we spent the night Sunday night) to the marsh and back.
I asked William what he thought the bee was doing. What’s up with that ceaseless patrol? It has to have a reason, I argued. The bee wouldn’t devote all that energy to the behavior unless there was some point to it.
I’ve tried to google for information about the bee before, without success. Today I tried again, and hit the jackpot.
The bee is the Valley carpenter bee, Xylocopa varipuncta. I’m used to seeing the female patrolling the eaves of houses and other wooden structures, looking for good spots to make a nest hole, and I knew that big black bee was a carpenter bee, but I never realized that this big golden bee was the male of the same species. An article from the UC Davis Department of Entomology quotes entomologist Lynn Kimsey as follows:
Carpenter bees, measuring about an inch long, are the largest bees in California. Their eggs are the largest of all insect eggs. The Valley carpenter bee egg can be 15mm long.
The males are territorial, Kimsey said, and can be quite aggressive. They hover and lie in wait for passing females.
“Female carpenter bees sting, but the males don’t have that apparatus,” Kimsey said. “You can pick up the fuzzy males and they won’t sting you.”
User INaturalist at bugguide.net posted this great image of the bee:
INaturalist wrote:
These big chubby guys come out in the spring and fly around in the willows where Coyote Creek flows into the percolation ponds. In Sunnyvale I find them in the Baccharis at the WPC ponds. They have a very short flight season — a couple of weeks and they’re gone. The females are black and yellow. This one is a drone — presumably its only function is to mate, so what is it doing patrolling? Waiting for a receptive virgin queen to emerge?
I think INaturalist’s speculation is probably right: The bee is on the lookout for females, and is patrolling a territory he’s staked out that seems likely to attract them.
So: Another mystery solved. :-)
[...] a guinea pig and tropical fish. I consider myself especially lucky to have one day seen a male Valley Carpenter bee, which shone like bright gold in the morning sun: Valley Carpenter bee, photo attributed to Matthew [...]
Just saw this giant golden furry bumble bee in my yard patrolling a rose bush.
It kind of reminded me of a miniature flying hamster.
Thank you for posting info and picture so I know what it really is!
Thanks so much for the spectacular photo of that furry flying giant. We found one but had trouble keying it out in our numerous lame field guides. What a beauty! Why would anyone omit such an extraordinary creature?
I too have always been intrigued by theese mysterious secretive bees. Ive seen the golden ones very rarely. But when I do, I cant stop starring at them. I just love carpenter bees. I used to call them bumble bees.
The above photo is spectacular…it MUST be the same fellow that was visiting my garden here in Redwood City, CA today hoping to find a virgin queen that could be nesting in my back patio cover. This was my first opportunity to observe the male. He was amazing. A gentle giant! We have had the large black carpenter bee (I call them wood bees.) in our patio cover for about 5 years now. I love all the bees but these are special.
We made several lovely closeup images of the giant gold Valley Carpenter bee. We are in Livermore and it was very busy in our elephant garlic blooms, along with a black Carpenter bee. Where shall I send an image?
Thanks so much for the picture. I saw one of these for the first time, and like you, it faced me and seem to be very aware of me, and just seem to stare at me and would do the same things as you described…flew in kind of a very small pattern hanging out near some flowers, and watched me like I watch it…I went into my house , got my camera and started to take a picture, but he got camera shy and flew away…he was beautiful, and a friendly guy…wish I had gotten a picture, but at least I know what he is now…thanks again
Just seen this monster out in front of my work place, buzzing around some rose bushes. He never did stop. In my 62 years I have never see a bee like this. He was beautiful.
I think I saw this bee yesterday in Sacramento, CA. It was flying around a bush, but never actually landed on any of the flowers. I managed to get a little video of it. Obviously I couldn’t get too close, but if you make it full screen you can see it better: http://vimeo.com/40782946.
I did a Google image search when I got home and found your site, so I linked to this page in my video description.
Neat video! Yes, I think that’s probably what you’ve got there. That “hover, move, hover, move, etc.” behavior is what I’m familiar with from watching them.
Thanks for sharing the video.
Have had two of these guys flying around one of my roses…never realized how rare they are. They have been patrolling the same rose bush for a week now…i was wondering what they were up to now I know : )
Wow these boys are big. I have six of them on my front yard I tried to get a picture but he freaked me out when he stared me down. Gave me Goose bumps and the shivers!!
I saw the female carpenter bee buzzing around my squash plants here in West Sacramento, CA – dark dark blue/black and shiny, seems to be at least twice and maybe three times the size of a typical bumble bee, just massive. The female looks almost more like a huge flying beetle rather than a fuzzy bee.
Good data, quite a few thank you to the author.
I have these in my front yard every year because I have left a downed tree trunk laying in my yard for my kids to climb on (in Sunnyvale). They have drilled their holes, and lay eggs in them. So each spring the new ones emerge. They’re beautiful! I usually have 2 golden ones flying around my garden at the same time in the spring.
I was at Happy Hollow Park in San Jose and saw a cluster of them around a flowering bush. I came home and asked my wife if she’s ever seen a large fuzzy yellow bee the size of a carpenter bee. She hadn’t and so my search lead me to you. Thank you for the information.
We have a very large nesting of these bees in the deck built over our porch. We have watched the gold ones and the black ones going in and out of the holes the last month or so, but tonight, at least 30 of the black ones with yellow spots swarmed the window under the porch. I think they were going for the light trying to get into the house, but very scary. Why would the females swarm the lights and fight over getting into the holes all of the sudden? This was the first night its happened.
Just saw one of these in our vegetable garden in Escalon. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a golden Carpenter Bee. Beautiful bee! Watched it for several minutes as it hovered and flew about the tomato plants. I frequently see the black/yellow bees (used to call them bumble bees when I was a child) so very pleased to have found your blog. Now I know the “real” name of the bumble bee and have more info on that beautiful golden bee.
Just saw one today collecting polen from my Mexican Sage bush in San Jose. Ran and grabbed my camera and got some good shots. Was going crazy on the web trying to ID it and finally found this page. Love it! Here are the pictures I took.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10201052473570955.1073741828.1141418763&type=1
So I feel like the worst person on the planet. One of these just flew into my house and, having never seen it before, I freaked out and stepped on it. I am SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SORRY! It was quite beautiful after I actually looked at it though.
I have a huge part of a fruit tree that appears to be th nest not sure what to do but I have pics of these little nuggets outside thier holes
We are in yuba city ca