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Characteristics

Length: 0.79–0.87 in (20–22 mm).

Flight season: Late February–June.

Nectar sources: Springblossoming flowers and shrubs, lavender, sweet peas, wisteria.

Habitat: Grassland, scrub, orchards, vineyards, gardens.

This glossy black bee, with a sparse covering of hairs and violet wings, is one of Europe’s largest. The female’s habit of boring into dead wood to create a nest gives this species its name. These bees hibernate over winter and emerge in late winter or early spring to search for mates. After mating, the female looks for a nest site; when she has found some suitable dead wood, she excavates a tunnel in it. Her jaws can burrow in sound as well as rotten wood. She lays between three and thirty eggs in small cells. When the larvae hatch, she places a ball of pollen beside each for them to feed on. The next generation of adults emerges in late summer.

Despite its large size, and the disconcerting buzz of its wings, the violet carpenter bee is not aggressive, and only stings as a last resort. The bee’s liking for wooden pallets as nest sites has helped it colonize new areas in recent years, and it is spreading north in Europe, doubtless helped by climate change.