Xylocopa Latipes

This is the first of what I hope will be an ongoing series on the insect life of Mae Sot. Xylocopa Latipes, also known as the Carpenter Bee, is the largest bee in the world, and common throughout Southeast Asia. I found this guy on the side of the highway as I was cycling back from muay thai. He has beautiful iridescent blue wings, pale grey compound eyes, and his body is about the size of my thumb. I don't think he was a well bee; he was dirty and dusty and crawling slowly into the traffic, breathing with apparent difficulty. I turned him around (carefully) and left him be.