Tag - protein

honey

One truth about honey: it’s not made from pollen...

February 22, 2023

12 Comments

honey bee management

Winter patties or pollen patties: how to choose the...

August 25, 2022

6 Comments

honey bee nutrition

Protein and the hypopharyngeal gland

June 17, 2013

9 Comments

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

English for beekeepers

Wednesday wordphile: vitellogenin

November 30, 2011

4 Comments

beekeeping equipment • feeding bees • pollen

Pollen traps require constant attention

June 6, 2010

4 Comments

honey bee nutrition • pollinator threats

Monoculture diets and honey bee health

March 5, 2010

1 Comment

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.