A bee in my bonnet

3 Comments

1 min read

There once was a bee in my bonnet;

She sniffed the fake daisy sewn on it.

Then before I knew why,

She flew up to the sky

And unloaded her feces upon it.

Rusty
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3 Comments

Deborah says:
March 10, 2012 at 12:08 pm
So cute!
Tricia says:
March 11, 2012 at 3:22 am
So very true.
I notice that ‘washing your beesuit’ is one of the most searched for phrases people use to find my blog.
Elizabeth says:
March 12, 2012 at 4:15 pm
Much better than a bee in your sonnet!

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.

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!

Connecticut’s state insect is the European “praying” mantis. Although they are beneficial insects, they are not native to North America.