The color of the bee consists of a black background with yellow spots. The size of a bee can vary from 3 mm to 45 mm.

In the structure of the body of the insect can be divided into three main parts:

• The head, which is crowned with paired antennae, as well as simple and complex eyes, having a faceted structure. Bees have the ability to distinguish all colors except red shades, smells and patterns of varying complexity. Bees collect nectar with a long proboscis. In addition, the mouth apparatus has cutting mandibles.
• Chest with two paired wings of different size and three pairs of legs. Between the wings of a bee are connected with small hooks. Legs covered with hairs serve several functions: cleaning antennas, removing wax plates, etc.
• The abdomen of the bee, in which the digestive and reproductive systems are located, the stinging apparatus and the wax glands. The lower part of the abdomen has a coating of long hairs that serve to hold the pollen.

To date, approximately 21 thousand species of bees are known.

The bee family has more than 520 genera, the most important of which are: halictides, andrenides, melittida, real bees, stenotrithidae, colletidae, megachylides.

How do bees live?

Bees have a distinction depending on their behavior. These insects can live singly and form communities called swarm. In solitary beings, only bee females perform all the work, ranging from breeding, building a nest to procuring food for posterity.

The insects living in the swarm are divided into semi-public and public. Labor in this society is clearly divided, each doing their work. The first type of organization has no distinction between worker bees and a bee-woman. The second type of organization is the highest, the womb here serves only to produce offspring.

Where do bees live?

The area of ​​distribution of bees is incredibly wide, they are not found only where there are no flowering plants. Bees have always settled in small mountain crevices, hollows of old trees, in earthen holes. Roy can settle in any place where there is protection from the wind and there is a reservoir nearby. You can meet them in the attic of the house or between its walls. In warmer areas, the bee's nest sometimes hangs openly in the trees.

What do bees eat?

Adult bees and larvae feed on pollen and floral nectar. Due to the structure of the oral apparatus, the collected nectar through the proboscis enters the goiter, where it is processed into honey. Mixing it with pollen, they get nutritious food for the larvae. In search of food can fly up to 10 km. Collecting pollen, bees pollinate plants.

Breeding bees.

Reproduction is carried out by laying eggs. From fertilized eggs, full-fledged individuals develop. If fertilization does not occur, drones are born. For viable offspring, drones from other families need to impregnate the uterus. The path from the egg to the adult individual of the bee consists in the successive transformation of it into a larva, a pupa, and a pupa. When the family reaches a large size or lacks food, it is divided into two parts (swarming). One part remains with the old womb, the second with the new womb seeks refuge for itself.

Spread

The habitat of the common carpenter is a large part of Europe, the Caucasus, the southern regions of Russia, the Volga region. This beautiful honey plant settles in forests, on steppe and forest-steppe areas, and even in the foothills. Since the insect loves rotten wood, it can make nests in human buildings: houses, pillars and fences.

Features and interesting facts

The carpenter bee is active from May to September, sometimes with a warm autumn to October. Her food is similar to the usual honey bee. It is plant pollen, for adult insects - honey and nectar. Xylokopa is a very hardy insect that can fly long distances. So that the pollen does not crumble, the bee wets it with saliva, adds nectar, and carries it on the hairs of the limbs. Favorite plants for collecting pollen are fruit trees, willows and acacias, red clover and flowers of various types.

The level of aggressiveness of the xylocopes violet is low. When meeting with a person, there is a high probability that the insect will not react in any way and will continue to move in a given direction.

If a bee bites a person, painful swelling forms at the site of the bite. Bite to the throat is fatal.

If the bee bites a person

Due to the decrease in the amount of dead wood in the forests and the destruction of this insect species near human habitation, the bee carpenter is an endangered species and is listed in the Red Book.

Conclusion

Beekeepers have long tried to tame the described species in order to breed a carpenter as an ordinary honey bee. If successful, the researchers would have at their disposal an outstanding breed and, perhaps, rescued from extinction non-ordinary insect. But attempts at domestication do not bring positive results; xylokopa violet develops only in its natural habitat.

Carpenter bee

Carpenter bee (Latin name Xylocopa valga) is a species of single bee Apidae family. It is a relic - "living fossil", that is, a species left over from past geological eras. Currently listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation.

Lifestyle

The carpenter bee is a social animal. She prefers to settle in small colonies on the outskirts of forests and settlements. As a "house" uses old trees, pillars, rock cracks, where I use the "teeth" master up to three galleries. Each gallery is a whole "apartment". For this they are called "carpenters." Sometimes it is settled in already finished rodent burrows. In their natural environment, they can be found from May to September.

Males are very active. Each of them has a small territory, which is carefully protected from competitors, and a “harem” of 3-5 females. Carpenter bees use nectar and pollen as food. Among the latter, prefers bean, lip beetle and rosacea.

The carpenter bee can be found in the Mediterranean, Central and Western Europe, Ukraine, the Caucasus, the Middle East, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and southern Russia.

If a carpenter bee bites a person, then he quickly begins to develop a painful swelling at the site of the bite. Chemicals contained in bee venom cause depression of the nervous system, which can lead to nervous shock. Bite to the throat is fatal.

Bee carpenter

Go to the contents of this section: Bees

There are about 730 types of carpenter bees. There are such bees around the world, most often in forest areas. Most species of carpenter bees live in the tropics.

A carpenter bee resembles a bumblebee, but does not have a yellow color on its body. The uterus in most species of carpenter bees is black or blue with a metallic tint, the length of its body is 2.5 cm. The drones do not differ much from the queens. In some species of carpenter bees, drones are covered with light brown, light green or yellowish-green hairs. Carpenter bees, as a rule, fly long distances and are able to visit many flowers during their flight. They can maintain their performance even during cold weather. Some species of carpenter bees have interesting social patterns of behavior. Bees go through several stages of social development before the bee family is formed.

If bumblebees, as a rule, build their nests in the ground, the carpenter bees make tunnels in the tree, and then lay eggs in them. Carpenter bees prefer unpainted wood of such tree species as mahogany, pine, cedar and cypress. Painted or treated wood is less susceptible to carpenter bees. Common breeding grounds for bees are cornices, window sills, boards, and furniture.

When the queen bee of carpenters builds tunnels in the wood, the characteristic sound can be heard a few meters from the bees nest. If you see a pile of sawdust and a lot of flying bees near the tree, then we can conclude that you are near the bee's nest. Honeycomb carpenters are built in tunnels. The cells separate the partitions of sawdust and wood, which are fastened with the bees' saliva. The entrance to the tunnels of carpenter bees is absolutely round, about the diameter of a finger. In Virginia, the womb of carpenter bees reproduces each year a new generation, but some individuals can live for two years. Different generations of these bees replace each other in the nest in which they live for over 14 years. In the hierarchy, the main place is occupied by the queen bees, followed by the bee guards at the entrance to the bee's nest.

Mountain carpenter bees are found in western North America, Washington state and in Mexico. The uterus is completely black. Drones are black with white spots on the head and gray hairs on the chest. The size of the uterus and drones more bumblebees. Bees fly out in search of nectar at dawn and during dusk in summer, they can be seen around large nectar-bearing plants such as honeysuckle. The drones of carpenter bees pursue each other and can fight. Mountain carpenter bees build their nests in fir and mahogany. Each tunnel in the bee's nest is 13 to 30 cm long. In one tree, carpenter bees can build several nests, which weakens the structure of the tree and it can die.

The common bee is a large (body length 20-27 mm) solitary insect. The head, chest, abdomen and legs are black, shiny, with very rare black hairs. The wings are dark with blue-violet shine. Antennae black above, reddish below. A large insect, very conditionally related to the bees, but quite strongly similar to them in appearance. The black - blue dense body of this insect is covered with thick purple hairs, small wings with rugged edges also have a purple color.

To prepare its nest, this bee has to gnaw long passages in the wood, making there a kind of multi-storey building, with ceilings and a floor separating each cell in which the larva will develop. These large bees can often be found sitting on flowers, where they collect nectar for their offspring, or flying around wooden structures and looking for a suitable place to prepare their nest.