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.

Category - honey

Stinky honey

How long does it take bees to change sugar syrup to honey?

Does pasteurization of honey kill Clostridium botulinum?

Does your honey have that new-car smell?

Cooking with honey

What is first rinse water?

Not so sweet: how too much honey can cause diarrhea

Kudzu: the weird dark secret of purple honey?

Does pollen cause crystallization?

What is honeydew honey?

Honey bee forage: black locust

Heavy metal accumulation in honey

Is tree honey slow to granulate?

Carrot honey . . . really!

Flying Bee Ranch gets a soaring A

Baking with honey