Tag - honey plants

bee forage

Bee plants and your hardiness zone

February 2, 2015

7 Comments

honey

Stinky honey

October 9, 2013

49 Comments

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

bee forage

Honey bee forage: bee bee tree

February 26, 2012

33 Comments

bee forage • varietal honey

The allure of bigleaf maple honey

September 30, 2011

22 Comments

bee forage

A honey bee forage plant: lovage

July 23, 2011

6 Comments

bee forage

Field bindweed as a pollinator plant

August 16, 2010

12 Comments

bee forage • varietal honey

Mini cascara flowers are now in bloom

May 25, 2010

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.