What is "carpenter bee"

Carpenter \Car"pen*ter\, n. [OF. carpentier, F. charpentier, LL. carpentarius, fr. L. carpentum wagon, carriage.] An artificer who works in timber; a framer and builder of houses, ships, etc.

Syn: Carpenter, Joiner.

Usage: The carpenter frames and puts together roofs, partitions, floors, and other structural parts of a building. The joiner supplies stairs, doors shutters, mantelpieces, cupboards, and other parts necessary to finishing the building. In America the two trades are commonly united.

Carpenter ant (Zo["o]l.), any species of ant which gnaws galleries in the wood of trees and constructs its nests therein. They usually select dead or somewhat decayed wood. The common large American species is Formica Pennsylvanica.

Carpenter bee (Zo["o]l.), a large hymenopterous insect of the genus Xylocopa; -- so called because it constructs its nest by gnawing long galleries in sound timber. The common American species is Xylocopa Virginica.

n. large solitary bee that lays eggs in tunnels bored into wood or plant stems

Carpenter bees (the genus Xylocopa in the subfamily Xylocopinae) are large bees distributed worldwide. Some 500 species of carpenter bees are in the 31 subgenera. Their common name derives from the behavior of nearly all species to build their nests in burrows in dead wood, bamboo, or structural timbers (except those in the subgenus Proxylocopa, which nest in the ground). Members of the related tribe Ceratinini are sometimes referred to as "small carpenter bees".