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The appendiculate carpenter bee is a big black carpenter bee from East Asia with bright yellow hair on its thorax. In the US it is known only from northern California, where it was first found in 2012–2013 and appears to have settled. It is also called the Asian or Japanese carpenter bee.

Appearance

Appearance
About 0.9 in (22 mm) long and stout. Bright yellow hair covers the thorax and back of the head, the wings are dark purplish brown, and the abdomen is shiny black with little hair. Males have a yellow face; females have an all-black face.

Look-alikes

Eastern carpenter beeXylocopa virginica

Location helps most: this Asian bee has so far been found only in northern California, outside the eastern carpenter bee's range. Up close, this Asian bee has bright yellow hair across the thorax and the top and back of the head, which the eastern carpenter bee lacks, and its males don't show the bluish or greenish sheen of male eastern carpenter bees.

Why they get mixed upBoth are large black carpenter bees with yellow on the thorax, and the eastern carpenter bee is the one most Americans know.

Bumble beesBombus

Carpenter bees have a shiny, mostly hairless abdomen. Bumble bees have a fuzzy abdomen, often striped black and yellow.

Why they get mixed upBoth are big, round, buzzy bees with yellow hair.

Where it lives

Typical habitats
  • Gardens
  • Urban areas
  • Woodland edges
Range
Native to eastern Asia, including China, Japan, and the Korean Peninsula. In the US it is known only from northern California, where it was first found in Santa Clara County in 2012–2013 and appears to be established.

Behavior

Diet
Nectar and pollen from flowers.
Overwintering
In Japan, new adults spend the winter in their mother's nest and the females start their own nests the next spring.

Life cycle

Nest
In its native range, females chew tunnels into dead branches and wooden building parts such as rafters, then stock each cell with a ball of pollen and nectar for one larva.

Cautions

Cautions
Males have no stinger. Females can sting, but they are gentle and rarely sting unless handled.

Connected species

Plants it pollinates
  • WisteriasWisteria

    In Japan, wisteria is a classic "carpenter bee flower": the bee is strong enough to open the blooms and carries the pollen.

Close relatives
  • Eastern carpenter beeXylocopa virginica

    The familiar native carpenter bee of the eastern US, in the same genus; similar in size and habits, but the Asian species has much more bright yellow hair on the thorax and the top of its head.

Conservation

IUCN Red List
NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
Status
In the United States it is a non-native bee whose spread is being tracked.

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Appendiculate Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa appendiculata) — identification, habitat & look-alikes | Moeyo