The latter bees may become economic pests if nesting takes place in structural timbers, fence posts, wooden water tanks, or the like. Xylocopa has seven species in America north of Mexico, two of which occur in Florida. Distribution Xylocopa micans Lepeletier is known from southeastern Virginia south to Florida, west to Texas, and south to Guatemala. At various times carpenter bees have been placed in the families Anthophoridae, Xylocopidae, or Apidae. This family is characterized, in part, by the jugal lobe of the hind wing being absent or shorter than the submedian cell and by the forewing having three submarginal cells.
Some males have yellowish areas on the face.
Both sexes may have pale or yellowish pubescence on the thorax, legs, or abdomen, but these hairs are not as abundant or as intensely colored as in bumble bees. Large carpenter bees are readily distinguished from bumble bees primarily by the absence of pubescence on the dorsum of the abdomen, which is somewhat shiny. According to his report it was a sound twig with a diameter of 2.5 cm or more. The nest entrance was about 1 m above the ground, but entrances in other twigs were as low as 15 cm. The twig was 1.6 cm in diameter near the nesting area, and projected straight up from the ground.