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Archive - May 2011

apiary creatures • honey bee behavior

Bees vs. mouse: a skeleton tells the story

10 years ago

1 min read

Queen rearing methods

10 years ago

2 min read

beekeeping equipment

Even painted boxes warp

10 years ago

1 min read

mason bees

Mason bee condo filling up

10 years ago

1 min read

wild bees and native bees

Bumble bee on azalea

10 years ago

1 min read

bee forage • wild bees and native bees

Honey bee forage: curlycup gumweed

10 years ago

2 min read

honeycomb

Why honey doesn’t run out of the comb

10 years ago

2 min read

English for beekeepers • varroa mites

What is survivor stock?

10 years ago

2 min read

honey bee management

Drowning in drones

10 years ago

3 min read

beekeepers • honey bee behavior • miscellaneous musings

You are a stranger to your bees

10 years ago

2 min read

pesticides

What is entombed pollen?

10 years ago

2 min read

honey bee management

Sun or shade: which is best for the bees?

10 years ago

4 min read

English for beekeepers • queen rearing

Wednesday wordphile: grafting

10 years ago

1 min read

hive inspection • how to

How to do a simple brood nest inspection

10 years ago

3 min read

muddled thinking

The dissemination of misinformation

10 years ago

2 min read

bee stories • beekeepers • miscellaneous musings

Beekeeping and the erosion of English

10 years ago

3 min read

Regardless of dictionaries, we have in entomology a rule for insect common names that can be followed. It says: If the insect is what the name implies, write the two words separately; otherwise run them together. Thus we have such names as house fly, blow fly, and robber fly contrasted with dragonfly, caddicefly, and butterfly, because the latter are not flies, just as an aphislion is not a lion and a silverfish is not a fish. The honey bee is an insect and is preeminently a bee; “honeybee” is equivalent to “Johnsmith.”

—From Anatomy of the Honey Bee by Robert E. Snodgrass

The non-native European Honey Bee is the state insect of:

Arkansas
Georgia
Kansas
Louisiana
Maine
Mississippi
Missouri
Nebraska
New Jersey
North Carolina
Oklahoma
South Dakota
Tennessee
Utah
Vermont
West Virginia
Wisconsin

Not one native bee is a state insect. The closest relative of a North American native bee to make the list is the Tarantula Hawk Wasp, the state insect of New Mexico.

Update! Minnesota now has a state bee as well as a state insect. Bombus affinis, the Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee, has been so honored. Good work, Minnesota!