Tag - deformed wing virus

varroa mites

The mites are the same old mites

2 years ago

20 Comments

queen bees

A virgin queen bee with deformed wings

3 years ago

15 Comments

postmortems & mysteries

Bees head-down in cells: did they starve?

3 years ago

34 Comments

By Xolani90 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26406168

varroa mites

Did mites kill my bees?

8 years ago

25 Comments

diseases • parasites • varroa mites

Varroa mites feeding on a sick bee

8 years ago

23 Comments

honey bee management • varroa mites

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.

Update! 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!

Tag - deformed wing virus

The mites are the same old mites

A virgin queen bee with deformed wings

Bees head-down in cells: did they starve?

It’s not about mites any more

Did mites kill my bees?

Varroa mites feeding on a sick bee

HopGuard: first impressions

Deformed wing virus