When I first started watching carpenter bees I thought they were goof balls or they must be ill, (something I could blame glysophate for 😀) they were buzzing with all their might the outside of the flower tube, not the stamen. It turns out Carpenter bees are robbers- stealing nectar without pollinating the flower. There bodies are too big to reach the stamen of some blooms, they get nectar by cutting slits with their mandible at the base of the flower and steel nectar without getting coated in pollen. You can see the slits if you look close. The much smaller sweat bees gather pollen from the end of the flower’s reproductive parts and make their way from flower to flower. I tend to focus on the larger bee, but with closer observation the large bees are thieves and the tiny bees are actually pollinating the flowers. I expect there is a benefit to the flower or another creature because that is how nature works. And you thought you knew everything about bees. Such amazing and unstudied creatures. #nativebees
Xylocopa micans - male
This is a male Southern Carpenter bee sleeping on a flower tube on the 4th of July. .