Why Honey Bee is Two Words
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
State Insects
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.
Where Are Your Hives?
Beekeepers are everywhere. Each time someone visits Honey Bee Suite, his or her location will appear on the map.
Comments
That’s interesting. From the reading I’ve done, I was under the impression that bees use a pheromone to show that a particular flower has already been visited. As this one has multiple blossoms consisting of the flower (sorry, don’t know the actual name for such!) maybe they avoid the ones that have already been visited?
Anna,
I seem to have read something about that as well. But I spend hours (no exaggeration) trying to photograph bees, and sometimes I concentrate on just one flower—with or without florets—and many bees will come. Another mystery. I will pay more attention to the floret thing in the future.
I’ve also read that bees can tell how recently a flower has been visited using electric fields (http://www.nature.com/news/bumblebees-sense-electric-fields-in-flowers-1.12480)