Galapagos Carpenter Bee
May 11, 2010
When I saw your posts about the Valley Carpenter Bee and the similar carpenter bee from Guam, I knew you’d want to see this Galapagos Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa darwinii). My husband Tom captured the last moments of this male carpenter bee being eaten by a lava lizard! The Galapagos Carpenter Bees are dimorphic also, with black females and golden brown males. Our guide said we were very lucky to see the males, since they don’t stick around very long. This photo was taken on January 23, 2010.
Mary
Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
Galapagos Carpenter Bee eaten by Lava Lizard
Dear Mary,
What an awesome Food Chain image you have submitted. It is also nice to get an image of a species closely related to our Southern California Valley Carpenter Bee. The males have a much shorter life span than the females because the females may take up to several months to gather enough pollen to provision a nest for approximately six offspring.
I like This
Dear Mary,
I am a biologist studying the Galapagos Carpenter Bee. I find your husband’s photo on the Carpenter Bee eaten by the Lava Lizard to be very interesting. I would like to contact you and your husband (if possible by email) in order to have more information on your observations.
Thanks
Diego
Hi Diego,
Your comment is approved on our site, but the original posting is several years old. We are not certain if Mary will check on any updates. Let us know if there is anything we can do to facilitate.
Dear Bugman,
Thanks for your answer two years ago. I am working on a scientific paper dealing with invertebrates from the Galapagos island. This picture is very interesting and I would love to include it in my paper, because of the interaction it shows. I would like to ask permission to use this photograph, but after all this time, I have not been able to contact Mary. Is there any chance that What’s that Bug can help me? I would appreciate it. My project is non-profit, but of course, I will include all the credits to Mary as the photographer and to What’s that Bug as the source.
Thanks for your help.
Kind regards,
Diego
Hi Diego,
What’s That Bug? reserves the right to allow permission for all content on our site. We will search through our archives and try to find a higher resolution original to send to you. Please credit the image to Mary as well as Courtesy of What’s That Bug?