Tag - hemolymph

varroa mites

The mites are the same old mites

December 8, 2018

22 Comments

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

English for beekeepers • varroa mites

Wednesday wordphile: phoresy

November 24, 2010

apiary creatures • diseases • parasites

Small but mighty: mites in the beehive

November 23, 2010

7 Comments

feeding bees • honey • honey bee behavior

One for the road: bees with a buzz

October 22, 2010

10 Comments

bee biology

The role of fat bodies in bee health

September 25, 2010

3 Comments

varroa mites

Varroa mites feed on honey bee hemolymph

May 21, 2010

7 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.