Tag - sweat 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?

6 years ago

34 Comments

Bees and their queen on a honeycomb. Pixabay

wild bees and native bees

Ground bees in a rooftop garden

8 years ago

6 Comments

wild bees and native bees

Metallic green sweat bees add sparkle to your garden

9 years ago

70 Comments

wild bees and native bees

A tiny pole dancer

9 years ago

5 Comments

wild bees and native bees

This bee seems to have Angelina lips

10 years ago

5 Comments

wild bees and native bees

Cuckoo sweat bee

10 years ago

Add Comment

wild bees and native bees

Lekking for love

11 years ago

8 Comments

bees in the news • wild bees and native bees

Bees that bring a tear to your eye

11 years ago

3 Comments

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. This book started zillions of people on their path to beekeeping. If you haven't read it, you should.

QueenSpotting: Meet the Remarkable Queen Bee and Discover the Drama at the Heart of the Hive by Hilary Kearney. You have to be a scrooge not to love this book. It even includes 48 queenspotting challenges.

The Bees in Your Backyard by Wilson & Carril. If you have any interest at all in the "other bees," you need this book. These are the bees we need to save.

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.