Strange bees on Kudzu

[paintingpreacher]

First year I have seen these bees on kudzu, they are all over it. They are about twice the size of a honeybee. Longer than a bumble.. Anyone know what they are?

http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/1716/scan0001nz7.jpg

http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/7790/scan0002xq8.jpg

[jeannie]

I think it's a type on hornet. I'm seen them around here alot lately.

[RonS]

Well, this may be a hornet, but I had a whole hive that looked like these. The hive was easily 1/2 AHB and the girls had black to very dark abdomens. Hornet don't usually have a fuzzy thorax. Excellent pictures, by the way.

[BjornBee]

Although there is something like 1500 types of bees/solitary/other species in N. America, I would have to agree about it being a honeybee. I know ahb's are generally smaller in size to traditional honeybees, but I can't say about hybrids.
How about tracking them to the colony?

You could also catch a couple in some isopropyl achohol and send off to the bee lab or university entomology department to see if the could identify. Who knows, you wouldn't be the first to have a bee named after themselves. I could see it now...the apispaintingpreacher.... ;)

[Hobie]

I'm quite a bit North of you, but it looks a lot like this bee(?) I saw on milkweed. I thought the wings looked more fly-like than hornet-like. I don't know what it is, either, so I'm no help there. It was much larger than a honey bee and not at all aggressive when I stuck a camera a few inches away from it.

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q289/SLaun/Bees/Beeonmilkweed.jpg

[Mabe]

Could this be a large capenter bee?

http://bugguide.net/node/view/1645/bgpage

Mabe

[Hobie]

Maybe, but I'm not sure. My barn is riddled with carpenter bees, and they look stockier, more like bumbles. Not as many segments in the abdomen. But your picture makes me wonder if there are different species of variations... which means I am MORE overrun with carpenter bees than I thought!?!

[paintingpreacher]

HOBIE,, MABE,, I think the bee on the milkweed is the same. I have been watching these bees for a month now and I finally found one of their homes within 3 ft. of one of my hives. They have bored several holes in an old fence post and are going in and out. They must be some type of carpenter bee although they look different from the ones that bore holes in my shed.
I have been amazed by the number of them on the kudzu, as my honeybees cannot get a bloom from them.
Thanks for the replies,,

[wish]

Giant resin bee, perhaps? If so, they use old carpenter bee nests (they don't do any boring themselves), and are generally non-aggressive.

[Joseph Clemens]

The first two pictures in this thread are of a bee whose "pollen baskets" are located where honeybees have wax glands. I too have seen these bees. The third picture in this thread is a picture of a fly. Back to basic insect anatomy 101.

[Alan]

I believe it is a flower fly. They work flowers just like honey bees and bumble bees. I just read about them in my new "Befriending Bumble Bees" book. There is a picture as well.

[paintingpreacher]

Thanks WISH,,
Perhaps a Giant Resin Bee. I had never heard of it.. Seems it is new to the U.S. from Asia. Looked it up at.. www.bugguide.net.... search for Resin Bee. There are lot's of pictures. Some look just like the one on the milkweed.

Giant Resin Bee:: Could Bee!