It’s too bad that this violet carpenter bee drawing was not drawn in color. These bees are dark purple, almost black, and can appear quite striking when visiting brightly colored flowers. According to the Young Collector’s Handbook of Ants, Bees, Dragon-flies, Earwigs, Crickets and Flies the scientific name of this bee is Xylocopa violacea. This book had tons of great insect drawings and I hope to share more of them with you in the future. They are not attributed to an illustrator and the book was published in 1890, which puts all of them in the public domain.
Our violet carpenter bee drawing depicts an insect that is virtually unknown to us Americans but it is apparently quite common in Europe and is one of the largest bees that can be found there.
This image is copyright free and in the public domain anywhere that extends copyrights 70 years after death or at least 120 years after publication when the original illustrator is unknown.
