The violet carpenter bee stands out from related species for its distinctive appearance, its beauty and its physical size. It lives a primarily a solitary life; members of this species only come together to mate. Violet carpenter bees are clumsy flyers, emitting a loud buzz while flying. Thus, they are often heard before they are seen.
Carpenter bees get their names after their nesting behavior [the name ‘Xylocopa’ is derived from the Greek and means ‘woodworker’]. The bees excavate tunnels into deadwood with their powerful mandibles, creating individual nest chambers from chewed wood fragments. Each chamber with one egg each is provided with pollen and nectar to last them through hibernation. The mature bees emerge the following spring.
The short-tongued violet carpenter bee is polylactic. It selects pollens from plants of a variety of plant genera and families. I photographed the bees on flowers of wild leak (Allium ampeloprasum).