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Archive - September 2016

feeding bees

Pollen feeders for honey bees

4 years ago

36 Comments

4 min read

guest posts • predators

Beekeeping with Asian hornets in France

4 years ago

106 Comments

9 min read

diseases

Will American foulbrood make a comeback?

4 years ago

21 Comments

4 min read

honey bee threats

Why do honey bees waste pollen?

4 years ago

22 Comments

3 min read

bees in the news

When poison falls from the sky

4 years ago

47 Comments

6 min read

bee forage

Madia elegans: a crazy pollinator plant

4 years ago

7 Comments

3 min read

honey bee behavior

The 3½ conditions necessary for comb building

4 years ago

35 Comments

3 min read

English for beekeepers

The vocabulary of beekeeping: phoresy

4 years ago

13 Comments

5 min read

varietal honey

Do bees make poison ivy honey?

4 years ago

34 Comments

5 min read

predators

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!

Archive - September 2016

Pollen feeders for honey bees

Beekeeping with Asian hornets in France

Will American foulbrood make a comeback?

Asian hornet found in the UK

Why do honey bees waste pollen?

When poison falls from the sky

Madia elegans: a crazy pollinator plant

The 3½ conditions necessary for comb building

The vocabulary of beekeeping: phoresy

Do bees make poison ivy honey?

Spiders that eat bees