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Mason bee on the wing

by Rusty Burlew

5 Comments

1 min read

3 years ago

This male mason bee had enough of the paparazzi. He’s cute, though, even from the back end. © Rusty Burlew.

5 Comments

Barbara Blackburn says:

April 2, 2014 at 4:22 am

So sweet! Great Photo!

Reply
Glen Buschmann says:

April 2, 2014 at 6:34 am

Nice shot, including antenna segments.

Reply
- Rusty says:
  
  April 2, 2014 at 7:31 am
  
  Glen,
  
  Let’s just call it a lucky shot.
  
  Reply
Pat says:

August 7, 2014 at 7:03 am

I have really enjoyed reading your blog. I was following the Secret Life of Bees (a book I loved) and landed here. I don’t keep bees but do my best to provide all-year round flowers for them here in Cornwall, UK. We have masses of bumbles which I adore.

All the best

Pat Johnstone

Reply
- Rusty says:
  
  August 7, 2014 at 9:06 am
  
  Pat,
  
  Thank you for providing for the bees! It is an important mission and I’m grateful to the folks who care enough to do it. And yes, The Secret Life of Bees is a great book; I loved it.
  
  Reply

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The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. This book started zillions of people on their path to beekeeping. If you haven't read it, you should.

QueenSpotting: Meet the Remarkable Queen Bee and Discover the Drama at the Heart of the Hive by Hilary Kearney. You have to be a scrooge not to love this book. It even includes 48 queenspotting challenges.

The Bees in Your Backyard by Wilson & Carril. If you have any interest at all in the "other bees," you need this book. These are the bees we need to save.

Manuka: The biography of an extraordinary honey by Cliff van Eaton. The discovery of manuka honey and its medicinal properties.

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.

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