Valley Carpenter Bee

Valley Carpenter Bee

Xylocopa sonorina

Daily sighting probability ~20% · Possible
at Ciudad Juárez

In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%

11 Verified sightings at Ciudad Juárez
35 In all 3 parks From 2019 to 2026
May Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Valley Carpenter Bee

Xylocopa sonorina, the valley carpenter bee or Hawaiian carpenter bee, is a species of carpenter bee found from western Texas to northern California, and the eastern Pacific islands. Females are black while males are golden-brown with green eyes.

X. sonorina is one of three southwestern US species in the genus Xylocopa, which has 31 subgenera and 500 species worldwide. Frederick Smith, Assistant in the Zoological Department of the British Museum and member of the council of the Entomological Society of London, first described X. sonorina in 1874 from specimens collected in Hawaii. Until 1956, it was thought that X. sonorina came from the Sunda Islands, but in a paper published that year, M. A. Lieftinck showed that Smith's interpretation of the original specimen labels was in error: Smith had mistakenly read the label of X. sonorina as meaning the Sunda Islands instead of the Sandwich Islands.

In 1899, R. C. L. Perkins described the same species as Xylocopa aeneipennis, and in 1922, P. H. Timberlake claimed that the Hawaiian Xylocopa was the same as the mainland X. varipuncta, that had been named in 1879, and Roy Snelling predicted in 2003 that X. varipuncta would eventually... Wikipedia →

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Saguaro National Park 🇺🇸 United States
~10%
2 Channel Islands National Park 🇺🇸 United States
~10%
3 Joshua Tree National Park 🇺🇸 United States
<5%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Sacramento 🇺🇸 United States
~40%
2 Mesa 🇺🇸 United States
~20%
3 Ciudad Juárez 🇲🇽 México
~20%
4 Los Angeles 🇺🇸 United States
~10%
5 Tijuana 🇲🇽 México
~10%
6 Phoenix 🇺🇸 United States
~10%
7 Las Vegas 🇺🇸 United States
~10%
8 San Francisco 🇺🇸 United States
~10%
9 San Diego 🇺🇸 United States
~10%
10 Mexico City 🇲🇽 México
~10%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Valley Carpenter Bee in Ciudad Juárez?

Possible

About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Valley Carpenter Bee sighting in Ciudad Juárez on a given day, based on 11 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 18th most-seen of the 49 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a Valley Carpenter Bee in Ciudad Juárez?

April and May

In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Valley Carpenter Bee in Ciudad Juárez on a given day, against under 5% in June–July and November–March, the lowest months. Those are among Ciudad Juárez's driest months, with about 10 mm of rain a month against 50 mm in July.

What time of day is best to see a Valley Carpenter Bee?

Between 10 am and 1 pm

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Valley Carpenter Bee sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.

Is Ciudad Juárez the best place to see a Valley Carpenter Bee?

3rd of 12

Of the 12 cities where we can rate Valley Carpenter Bee sightings, Ciudad Juárez ranks 3rd at about 20%. The best odds are in Sacramento (United States, about 40%) and Mesa (United States, about 20%).

Where does the Valley Carpenter Bee sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Valley Carpenter Bee is recorded against all the insects logged in Ciudad Juárez (11 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.

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