Teddy bear bees really do exist

Photos and text by Sarah Phelan

I'd heard that teddy bear bees exist but I didn't believe how big and hairy they could be until I got an eyeful myself.
The location was the Haagen Daaz honey bee haven, which is in Davis, California. The haven began, as the name suggests, as a haven for research into honey bees: Haagen Daaz donated funds because all its flavors of ice cream rely on fruit being pollinated by bees
But over the years retired entomologist Dr. Robbin Thorp, who works at the haven, began turning his attention to other bees --and when I visited him last week, he showed off a female teddy bear which is big and black and hairy. Thorp used an apparatus that looks like a dust buster to "suck" the bee off a flower. He then was able to examine the bee more closely before releasing her again unharmed, though I suspect the experience must be the bee equivalent of an alien abduction.
Turns out the male teddy bear bee has golden hair on its body, hence the "teddy bear" name. No males showed up while I was at the honey bee haven, but a female teddy bear bee (pictured above) appeared after Thorp had left the garden. So, I spent a transcendental few minutes trying to capture her size, bustle and buzz, before she zoomed off again.

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Xylocopa varipuncta, as these bees are officially called, are also known as Valley carpenter bees: the males are referred to as “teddy bear” bees  because of their yellowish-brownish color and fuzzy burly bodies. The females, by contrast, are all black with violet reflections on their dark wings.
 It's hard to convey the size of this bee--the flower she is sitting on is pretty big but that doesn't translate in this photograph.
So, I've included a short video clip in the hope of sharing how awesome it was to see this bee so up close and personal: