Xylocopa sonorina

Xylocopa sonorina, commonly known as the Sonoran carpenter bee, is a carpenter bee found in the eastern Pacific islands.[1] Males are golden brown and lack stingers; females are black and larger than the males and considered shy. In tropical climates, females will lay eggs all year, with interruptions due to cold weather. After collecting pollen and preparing tunneled chambers out of wood, a single female will deposit eggs on pollen balls within the chamber and seal it. The eggs will hatch two to three days later, with larvae maturing in two weeks, and prepupal and pupal stages lasting 3–4 weeks. New adults will begin buzzing a week later and flying in two to three more weeks.

The Sonoran carpenter bee is distinguished from other species of the genus by differences in their genitalic morphology. The species is one of 11 non-native bees in the U.S. state of Hawaii.[2] Humans are thought to have helped the species colonize Pacific archipelagos. It is not known when X. sonorinawas introduced to the Hawaiian Islands, but sometime around 1874, British entomologist Frederick Smith identified it as a new species. X. sonorina is currently found on all of the main Hawaiian Islands and in the Mariana Islands. In tropical agriculture, X. sonorina has been used as a pollinator of Passiflora edulis, a species of passion fruit.