Common name: Carpenter Bee
Scientific name: Xylocopa Californica
Family: Anthrophoridae

This type of bee lives in forests and adjacent meadows in Utah, Nevada, California and parts of Oregon and Mexico. The adult drinks nectar and the larva feeds on nectar and pollen. The female chews a tunnel as deep as a foot long into the dry wood of dead trees or lumber. She then makes a series of cells by sealing off the tunnel with a series of disklike partitions made of cemented wood chips and provisions each with pollen and nectar before laying one egg in each cell. When the eggs hatch, each bee is then behind the one in front and must wait its turn to get out of the tunnel!