Giant Hawaiian wood eating bee

[Doug Yanega]

>I have found several of these boring 5/8 inch holes in hardwood poles
>(Ohia).  I'm going to get rid of them but wondered if someone would want
>them for a collection. I don't know anything about them except that they
>can eat their way through any wood. They don't seem to sting.

Well, the females certainly can sting, even if the males cannot - those are
Carpenter Bees (Xylocopa), and I've forwarded your message to a world
authority on the group.

Peace,

Doug Yanega    Depto. de Biologia Geral, Instituto de Ciencias Biologicas,
Univ. Fed. de Minas Gerais, Cx.P. 486, 30.161-970 Belo Horizonte, MG   BRAZIL
phone: 031-449-2579, fax: 031-441-5481  (from U.S., prefix 011-55)
                  http://www.icb.ufmg.br/~dyanega/
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82