The sculptured resin bee, or giant resin bee, is a large bee from East Asia that was accidentally brought to the U.S. and first found here in 1994. Today it lives in most states east of the Mississippi River and in Ontario, Canada. Instead of cutting leaves like its leafcutter relatives, it seals its nest cells with tree resin.
Appearance
- Appearance
- One of the largest bees in the U.S. Females are about 7/8–1 in (22–27 mm) long and males are smaller, about 1/2–3/4 in (14–19 mm). The body is black with brownish-yellow hair on the thorax and the first abdominal segment. The abdomen is long and cylindrical with a rough, matte surface, and the wings are smoky brown.
Look-alikes
Eastern carpenter beeXylocopa virginica
A carpenter bee's abdomen is smooth, bald, and shiny. The resin bee's abdomen is rough and matte, with raised bands.
Why they get mixed upBoth are big, dark bees around wooden decks and porches, and the resin bee often nests in old carpenter bee holes.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Yards and gardens
- Wooden decks and porches
- Woodland edges
- Range
- Native to East Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan). Introduced to the eastern U.S., where it now occurs in most states east of the Mississippi, and to Ontario and parts of Europe.
- Preferred conditions
- It can't chew its own holes, so it moves into existing cavities: tree hollows, hollow stems, gaps between boards, bee hotels, and old tunnels made by carpenter bees.
Behavior
- Diet
- Adults visit flowers for nectar and pollen. In the U.S. it has been recorded on more than 40 plants and favors non-native ones, especially Asian plants such as kudzu, Japanese pagoda tree, and goldenrain tree. It also visits everlasting pea and butterfly bush.
- Activity
- Adults appear in early summer and are active through the summer.
- Social life
- A : each female builds her own nest, though several females often nest close together.
- Overwintering
- Overwinters as a larva in the nest, and the new adults come out in early summer.
Life cycle
- Nest
- The female builds a row of cells inside a cavity using resin, mud, and wood bits, stocks each with a pollen ball, and lays one egg per cell, up to about 10 cells per nest.
- Larva
- Larvae eat the stored pollen in their cells.
Cautions
- Cautions
- Males can't sting. Females can, but they aren't aggressive and usually fly away from people. Because they don't chew wood, they don't damage buildings.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
- Threats
- Biologists watch it as a possible competitor of native bees. It takes over nesting holes of the native eastern carpenter bee, and it has been reported smearing carpenter bees with sticky resin and killing them. Because it favors Asian plants, it may also help spread invasive kudzu and Chinese privet.
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