page_title: Xylocopa micans
section_title: Foraging behavior
hierarchical_section_title: Xylocopa micans / Behavior / Foraging behavior
caption_attribution_description: English: Xylocopa micans on Vitex in coastal South Carolina, mid-summer. Black Bee.
context_page_description: Xylocopa micans, also known as the southern carpenter bee, is a species of bee within Xylocopa, the genus of carpenter bees. The southern carpenter bee can be found mainly in the coastal and gulf regions of the southeastern United States, as well as Mexico and Guatemala. Like all Xylocopa bees, X. micans bees excavate nests in woody plant material. However, unlike its sympatric species Xylocopa virginica, X. micans has not been found to construct nest galleries in structural timbers of building, making it less of an economic nuisance to humans. Carpenter bees have a wide range of mating strategies between different species. The southern carpenter bee exhibits a polymorphic mating strategy, with its preferred method of mating changing as the season progresses from early spring to mid summer. Like most bees in its genus, the southern carpenter bee is considered a solitary bee because it does not live in colonies.
context_section_description: Southern carpenter bees are nectarivores. Males will forage from 12 PM until 4 PM at the latest during the summer months, although males with territories will forage for only one hour before returning to defend their territories. X. micans bees exhibit risk sensitive foraging, where bees demonstrate risk-aversion to completely empty flowers and favor flowers with nectar. X. micans is also polylectic, meaning that X. micans bees are general pollinators and can collect pollinators from a broad variety of plants. They also have special abilities for pollination, since they are capable of buzz pollination, a technique that allows the bees to dislodge tightly held pollen using resonant vibration. This ability expands the types of plants that X. micans is capable of foraging on.
caption: X. micans specimen pollinating flowers of a Vitex agnus-castus plant.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "NIKON", "Image Model": "E990", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "E990v1.1", "Image DateTime": "2001:06:21 08:10:45", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "284", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "4084", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9219", "EXIF ExposureTime": "5/1286", "EXIF FNumber": "63/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0210", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2001:06:21 08:10:45", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2001:06:21 08:10:45", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "7/2", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired", "EXIF FocalLength": "19", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2048", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1536", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "886", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed"}