Golden-green carpenter bee facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Golden-green carpenter bee |
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| Female | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Genus: |
Xylocopa
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| Species: |
aerata
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| Synonyms | |
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Lestis aeratus Smith, 1851 |
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The golden-green carpenter bee (also called the green carpenter bee) is a special type of carpenter bee. You can only find it in certain protected areas around Sydney and in the Great Dividing Range in New South Wales, Australia. As of 2020, its only other home is on Kangaroo Island in South Australia.
This bee is very sensitive to fires. Sadly, many of its homes were burned during the big 2019-2020 bushfire season in Australia. It gets its name because it likes to dig tunnels into wood. Unlike honeybees, it does not live in big groups or make honey. However, it is very important for helping many native Australian plants grow by moving pollen between flowers.
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About the Golden-Green Carpenter Bee
This bee was first described by F. Smith in 1851. He called it Lestis aeratus. Its scientific name, aerata, comes from a Latin word meaning "bronzed."
What Does the Golden-Green Carpenter Bee Look Like?
As its name suggests, the golden-green carpenter bee is a shiny metallic green. Sometimes, it might look a bit purple or blue depending on the light. It is a large, chunky bee, almost 2 centimeters long. This makes it one of the biggest native bees in southern Australia.
You can often hear it flying by its loud, low buzzing sound. Male bees have yellow markings on their faces. These bees can sting, and it might hurt, but no one has ever reported being stung by one.
Where Do Golden-Green Carpenter Bees Live?
The golden-green carpenter bee used to live across southeastern New South Wales, including Sydney. It also lived in Victoria and southeastern South Australia. However, the green carpenter bee disappeared from mainland South Australia in 1906. It also vanished from Victoria in 1938.
Now, besides conservation areas near Sydney and the Great Dividing Range, it only lives on the western side of Kangaroo Island in South Australia.
What Plants Do They Visit?
You can see these bees from spring to autumn. They often feed on pea flowers from the Fabaceae family. This includes Gompholobium species, like Gompholobium latifolium in spring. In autumn, they visit Pultenaea elliptica. They also like flowers from Leucopogon and Leptospermum plants.
Golden-Green Carpenter Bee Behaviour
Golden-green carpenter bees build their nests by digging out tunnels. They use the stalks of grasstrees (Xanthorrhoea) or soft wood from trees like Banksia, Casuarina, Melaleuca, and Leptospermum.
How Do They Build Their Nests?
The female bee uses her strong jaws to dig a tunnel. She collects the wood shavings and pushes them outside the nest. These tunnels can be up to 30 centimeters long and about 1.1 to 1.4 centimeters wide. If the wood is big enough, several tunnels can be made.
Sometimes, more than one female bee will use a nest. One bee will lay eggs, and the others will guard the entrance. A bee protects the 0.7 to 1.0 centimeter wide entrance by blocking it with her abdomen. Both male and female bees can stay inside these tunnels during winter.
The tunnels are divided into several small rooms, called cells. In each cell, the mother bee lays an egg. She also leaves a supply of nectar and pollen for the young bee to eat when it hatches.
Conservation Efforts for the Golden-Green Carpenter Bee
Losing their natural homes and facing large, intense bushfires caused these bees to disappear from some areas. The last green carpenter bee seen in Victoria was in December 1938. This was just before the huge Black Friday fires in January 1939. Fires destroy the dead wood the bees need for nesting. They also burn the flowers the bees need for food all year round.
Helping the Bees After Fires
In 2007, a massive fire damaged much of Flinders Chase National Park on Kangaroo Island. However, it left dry grasstree stalks in nearby areas. The bees were able to move into these stalks.
Conservationists also created special artificial nesting stalks. These were designed to help the bee population survive until new banksia plants grew back. These artificial stalks were placed in areas affected by the fire where bees still lived. Almost 300 female carpenter bees used these artificial stalks to raise their young.
But then, disaster struck again during the 2019-2020 bushfire season in Australia. The areas with the artificial stalks were destroyed. Much of the old banksia habitat on Kangaroo Island was also lost. Fires in New South Wales also destroyed large areas where these bees lived.
Images for kids
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Female Golden-Green Carpenter Bee
