Tag - forage

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

bee forage • varietal honey

What about the other 125 species of maple?

October 5, 2011

4 Comments

bee forage • wild bees and native bees

A honey bee forage plant: lovage

July 23, 2011

6 Comments

bee forage • wild bees and native bees

Honey bee forage: curlycup gumweed

May 26, 2011

honey bee behavior • pollen

Crimson clover is a show-stopping honey bee favorite

February 21, 2011

45 Comments

bee forage

Honey bee forage: hardy kiwi

February 17, 2011

9 Comments

English for beekeepers

Wednesday word file: forage

February 9, 2011

bee forage • honey bee nutrition • pollen

Honey bee forage: pussy willow

February 4, 2011

8 Comments

attracting wild pollinators • bee forage

Russian sage for your pollinator garden

August 1, 2010

11 Comments

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.