Valley Carpenter Bee, Xylocopa varipuncta

These big chubby guys come out in the spring and fly back and forth in the willows where Coyote Creek
flows into the percolation ponds. This one is a drone: its only function is to find and mate with females.

In Sunnyvale I find them in the Coyote Brush behind the WPC treatment plant. They have a very short flight
season. Males drink nectar, cruise around looking for females, groom, sleep; a couple of weeks and they're gone.

The females are huge, all black. Unlike the males, they work. Females bore tunnels in wood, lay eggs, collect nectar and pollen, and feed larvae.