Tag - honey bee management

bees in the news • honey bee threats

Haunted by losses, a Maryland beekeeper speaks out

February 10, 2017

17 Comments

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

bee biology

Dead bees rising

May 19, 2015

29 Comments

comb honey • comb honey production

Comb honey: it’s all about the wax

December 5, 2013

13 Comments

muddled thinking

To improve the cluster, destroy the nest

September 23, 2012

14 Comments

beekeepers • honey bee management

8 devastating beekeeping errors you can easily fix

February 3, 2011

18 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.