Xylocopa darwini
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
Xylocopa darwini, the Galápagos carpenter bee, is the only native species of bee in the Galápagos Islands, to which it is endemic. Altogether, only three species of bee are found in the islands. This species is found on 75% of the largest islands. It is sexually dimorphic and is known for its complex behavior. As the only native bee, Xylocopa darwini serves as an important primary pollinator within the plant-pollinator network of the archipelago.
The leaf-cutter bee and the wool carder bee are introduced, making the Galápagos carpenter bee the only native species. As a sexually dimorphic species, the male and female bees look different. The female bee is dark and shiny with black setae, and is commonly found throughout the year. The male is rarer, with a black abdomen and yellow-brown setae. A rare specimen in the Smithsonian collection exhibits gynandromorphism, with a visually female left side and a visually male right side.
Galapagos carpenter bees can be found on 9 out of the 12 largest islands, but not all of the islands in the archipelago. These include Isabela, San Cristóbal, Santa Cruz, Santiago, Fernandina, Floreana, Genovesa, Santa Fe,... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Galápagos Islands | 🇪🇨 Ecuador |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Galápagos Carpenter Bee sighting in Galápagos Islands on a given day, based on 572 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 2nd most-seen of the 83 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August–October and December–June
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Galápagos Carpenter Bee in Galápagos Islands on a given day, against about 30% in July and November, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Galápagos 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.
Only Galápagos Islands, in our data
Galápagos Islands is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Galápagos Carpenter Bee sightings: about 40% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same order: Hymenoptera
The closest relatives of the Galápagos Carpenter Bee that you can see in Galápagos Islands (order Hymenoptera, Ants, Bees, Wasps, and Sawflies) are Variegated Paper Wasp (about 30%), Brachygastra lecheguana (about 10%) and Longhorn Crazy Ant (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Galápagos Carpenter Bee is recorded against all the insects logged in Galápagos Islands (572 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
