Southern Carpenter Bee Xylocopa micans

Unlike its notorious cousin that loves drilling into house timbers, this southern carpenter bee is the considerate neighbor of the wood-boring world. It excavates nests in dead wood and plant stems, but leaves your deck and siding alone. What's especially remarkable is its polymorphic mating strategy—the preferred way males and females mate actually changes throughout the season, shifting from early spring tactics to entirely different approaches by mid-summer. Solitary by nature, these bees don't form colonies, making each female an independent architect and builder.