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quiz

Basic honey bee biology: a beginner’s quiz

6 years ago

21 Comments

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

wild bees and native bees

Keeping antennae shiny and clean with a built-in...

10 years ago

8 Comments

bee biology

Is a honey bee a single-celled organism?

11 years ago

6 Comments

honey bee behavior • infrequently asked questions

Why are my bees dying in the grass?

11 years ago

43 Comments

Honey bee exuding wax from abdomen. Photo by Debbe Krape.

beeswax • photographs

The best bee butt photo

11 years ago

16 Comments

A newly emerged mason bee peeks from its nesting tube. Rusty Burlew

English for beekeepers

Ocelli: tiny bee eyes

13 years ago

1 Comment

bee biology • honey bee management

The cyclic nature of honey bee populations

13 years ago

1 Comment

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.

Tag - bee biology

Basic honey bee biology: a beginner’s quiz

On a wing and a prayer

Keeping antennae shiny and clean with a built-in...

Is a honey bee a single-celled organism?

Why so many wings and legs?

Why are my bees dying in the grass?

The best bee butt photo

Ocelli: tiny bee eyes

The cyclic nature of honey bee populations