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Xylocopa darwini, the Galápagos carpenter bee, is the only native species of bee found in the Galápagos Islands, to which it is endemic. The female is all black, whereas the male has a black abdomen and is yellow-brown elsewhere.
Ecological Significance
[edit]These insects serve an important role as the predominant pollinators of native and introduced plants on the islands. They compete for food with other pollinators including birds, lizards, and other insects .
These bees are the most generalized pollinators in the Galapagos ecosystem, meaning that they consume nectar and pollen from the widest array of different flowers, adding up to at least 84 flowering species.
Their niche as pollinators is vital to the stability of plant populations, even though most well documented plant species on the archipelago are capable of self-pollination.
Habitat
[edit]Galapagos carpenter bees can be found on Wolf, Fernandina, San Salvador, Santa Cruz, and Espanola, but not all of the islands in the archipelago.