Category - postmortems & mysteries

postmortems & mysteries

Colony postmortem #4: two losses in one week

February 5, 2020

61 Comments

6 min read

postmortems & mysteries

What’s wrong with this colony?

June 5, 2019

106 Comments

3 min read

Many dead bees head-down in their cells.

postmortems & mysteries

Bees head-down in cells: did they starve?

February 25, 2018

38 Comments

5 min read

postmortems & mysteries

What crud is this?

August 6, 2015

30 Comments

2 min read

postmortems & mysteries

Colony postmortem #2

March 3, 2015

24 Comments

8 min read

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

postmortems & mysteries

Last thoughts on a lost colony

January 21, 2015

19 Comments

6 min read

postmortems & mysteries

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.