Tag - mining bees

Mining bees in September: Many ground-dwelling bees are active in fall. This tiny Lasioglossum female, commonly known as a sweat bee, is foraging on an Alyssum flower. © Rusty Burlew.

wild bees and native bees

Why do I see mining bees in September?

September 19, 2017

34 Comments

bee stories

When pests become pets with portraits

October 12, 2015

29 Comments

pollinator threats • rants

Kill it! Kill it!

June 18, 2014

55 Comments

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

wild bees and native bees

A photo from the underground

June 3, 2014

4 Comments

wild bees and native bees

Andrena mining bees

May 22, 2014

10 Comments

wild bees and native bees

Spotlight on mining bees: what happens when you let...

April 29, 2014

152 Comments

wild bees and native bees

On a wing and a prairie

April 23, 2014

6 Comments

attracting wild pollinators • other pollinators • wild bees and native bees

Mining bees are wild bees that live underground

October 8, 2010

251 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.