Carpenter Bee

This one-inch-plus male carpenter bee greatly out-weighs other abundant pollinators on our pink sedum, a late-summer blossomer that lasts into late fall past successive frosts. His job done, and without moving a two-clawed leg, he lazily works his thin, flexible tongue into any newly opened blossoms clustered on the sedum heads beneath him.
The male carpenter bee has a white spot just above his mouth parts (not shown) and cannot sting. Still, he is a powerful if awkward flier, and gives the distinct impression that he would sting if he could, when on seemingly unsteady wings he nearsightedly inspects nearby objects, including photographers. And yet somehow he gives me comfort, knowing that bees go bald too, as his characteristic hairless thorax spot shows.
The female bores holes into unprotected wood, sealing her eggs and their stunned insect food into successive chambers with bits of sawdust made from her audible cutting of perfectly round holes and short tunnel.
She can sting...