xylocopa

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An extensive genus of solitary bees, containing many of those large species known as carpenter-bees. They resemble bumblebees, from which they differ in having the abdomen usually naked, and in important venational characters. Their burrows are formed in solid wood, and their cells are separated by partitions usually made of agglutinated sawdust, and provisioned with pollen. Six species occur in Europe and nine in North America. X. violacea is the common European species, and X. virginica the common one in the United States. See also carpenter-bee (with cut).

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) A genus of hymenopterous insects including the carpenter. See Carpenter bee, under carpenter.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. carpenter bees