''Xylocopa aerata'', the golden-green carpenter bee or green carpenter bee, is one of two species of

carpenter bee Carpenter bees are species in the genus ''Xylocopa'' of the subfamily Xylocopinae. The genus includes some 500 bees in 31 subgenera. The common name "carpenter bee" derives from their nesting behavior; nearly all species burrow into hard plant m ...

found only in the conservation areas around

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, and in the

Great Dividing Range The Great Dividing Range, also known as the East Australian Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands, is a cordillera system in eastern Australia consisting of an expansive collection of mountain ranges, plateaus and rolling hills. It runs roughl ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

in Australia. Its only other habitat as of 2020 is on

Kangaroo Island Kangaroo Island (, ) is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island, Northern Territory, Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia, southwest of Adelaide. Its closest point to the mainland is Snapper Poi ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

. The species is especially vulnerable to fire, and much of its habitat was burnt during the

2019–20 Australian bushfire season The 201920 Australian bushfire season commenced with serious uncontrolled fires in June 2019. , fires this season have burned an estimated , destroyed over 5,900 buildings (including 2,779 homes) and killed at least 34 people. An estimated o ...

. The bee gets its common name by its habit of burrowing into wood. It is not a social species and does not produce honey, but it is an important

pollinator A pollinator is an animal that moves pollen from the male anther of a flower to the female carpel, stigma of a flower. This helps to bring about fertilization of the ovules in the flower by the male gametes from the pollen grains. Insects are ...

for several species of Australian native plants.

Description

It was originally described by F. Smith in 1851 as ''Lestis aeratus''.Smith, F. 1851. Notes on the habits of Australian Hymenoptera. Transactions of the Entomological Society of London ns 1: 179–181, pl. xvi figs 4, 5 80 Its specific epithet is the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

adjective ''aerata'', meaning "bronzed". As its name implies, the golden-green carpenter bee is a metallic green in colour, although it may appear purplish or bluish from some angles. A large stocky bee (at nearly , one of the largest native bees in southern Australia), it is often heard by its loud low-pitched buzzing while flying between flowers. The male has yellow face markings. The bee does have a sting which is potentially painful, although no stings have been recorded.

Distribution and habitat

The natural distribution was southeastern New South Wales from Sydney southwards (where it overlaps with '' X. bombylans''), and into

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

and southeastern

. However, the green carpenter bee went extinct on mainland South Australia in 1906 and in Victoria in 1938. Apart from conservation areas around Sydney, and in the Great Dividing Range, it exists only on the western half of Kangaroo Island in SA. They can be seen from spring to autumn, commonly feeding at pea flowers of the family

Fabaceae Fabaceae () or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomen ...

, such as ''

Gompholobium ''Gompholobium'', commonly known as glory peas or wedge-peas, is a genus of plants in the pea family Fabaceae and is Endemism, endemic to Australia. Most species have compound leaves composed of three leaflets and all have ten stamens which are f ...

'' species, including '' Gompholobium latifolium'' in spring, and '' Pultenaea tuberculata'' in autumn. Flowers of ''

Leucopogon ''Leucopogon'' is a genus of about 150-160 species of shrubs or small trees in the family Ericaceae, in the section of that family formerly treated as the separate family Epacridaceae. They are native to Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, the ...

'' and ''

Leptospermum ''Leptospermum'' is a genus of shrubs and small trees in the myrtle family Myrtaceae commonly known as tea trees, although this name is sometimes also used for some species of ''Melaleuca''. Most species are endemic to Australia, with the greate ...

'' are also visited.Species Xylocopa (Lestis) aeratus (Smith, 1851)
Australian Biological Resources Study Australian Faunal Directory

Behaviour

The golden-green carpenter bee nests by hollowing out stalks of grasstrees (''

Xanthorrhoea ''Xanthorrhoea'' () is a genus of about 30 species of Succulent plant, succulent flowering plants in the family Asphodelaceae. They are Endemism, endemic to Australia. Common names for the plants include grasstree, grass gum-tree (for resin-yie ...

''), or soft wood such as ''

Banksia ''Banksia'' is a genus of around 170 species of flowering plants in the family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes, and woody fruiting "cones" and head ...

'', ''

Casuarina ''Casuarina'', also known as she-oak, Australian pine and native pine, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Casuarinaceae, and is native to Australia, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, islands of the western Pacific Ocean, and e ...

'', ''

Melaleuca ''Melaleuca'' () is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles, bottlebrushes or tea-trees (although the last name is also applied to species of '' Leptospermum''). They ...

'' and ''Leptospermum''. The female excavates a tunnel with her jaws and picks up and dumps the wood shavings outside. The hollow can reach long by 1.1-1.4 cm diameter. Larger pieces of wood may allow for multiple tunnels. Several female bees may use a nest, one breeding and the others guarding. A bee defends the 0.7-1.0 cm wide entrance by blocking it with its abdomen (compare '' Allodapula''). Both male and female bees may overwinter within the tunnels. The tunnels are partitioned into several cells, where the mother bee lays an egg in each accompanied by provisions of nectar and pollen.

Conservation

Habitat clearing and large, intense bushfires led to extinction in some areas. The last green carpenter bee seen in Victoria was in December 1938 in the

Grampians The Grampian Mountains () is one of the three major mountain ranges in Scotland, that together occupy about half of Scotland. The other two ranges are the Northwest Highlands and the Southern Uplands. The Grampian range extends northeast to so ...

, not long before the Black Friday fires of January 1939. Fire destroys the dead wood the bee needs for nesting, and the flowers which it needs all the time. In 2007 a huge fire destroyed much of the vegetation in

Flinders Chase National Park Flinders Chase National Park (formerly Flinders Chase) is a protected area in the Australian state of South Australia located at the west end of Kangaroo Island about west-south west of the state capital of Adelaide and west of the municipal ...

on Kangaroo Island, but left dry grass-tree stalks in the adjacent areas which were colonised by the bees. Conservationists also developed artificial nesting stalks to support the bee population until new banksia became available, which were placed in the fire-affected areas where the bee still occurred. Almost 300 female carpenter bees used the artificial stalks to raise their young, until disaster struck in the

. Not only were the areas of the artificial stalks destroyed, but much of the old banksia habitat on Kangaroo Island, and the NSW fires destroyed large areas of habitat there too.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2051368 aerata Hymenoptera of Australia Arthropods of New South Wales Insects described in 1851