Comments

  1. says

    looks like an ant, but i guess ants, like bees, are just a kind of wasp. maybe they’re all just air-shrimp, since insects are nested within crustacea.

  2. says

    im not normally at all interested in bugs, but i randomly encountered a very interesting wasp while half-assedly helping my husband in the yard – one of those emerald green parasitoid wasps. it was so much tinier than i would have expected, half the length of a regular bee at most, and much thinner. never seen one before or since.

  3. says

    I hope you see more as time goes by, But, sadly, most reports are that the pollinators are being decimated, especially now that the magat admin and RF*ckingKjr are in power.

  4. John Morales says

    Indeed, a moment’s fact-checking shows it’s quite bad:
    https://agriculture.auburn.edu/feature/u-s-beekeeping-survey-reveals-highest-honeybee-colony-losses-during-2024-2025/

    The Project Apis m. survey, with its strong participation from commercial beekeeping operations, offers a detailed snapshot of the challenges facing that sector. The USDA suspects that the parasitic mite Varroa destructor, and some viruses its vectors, are to blame.

    This year, the estimated 55.6% colony losses are at their highest loss rate since the annual survey collection began in 2010.

    2,453 beekeepers across the U.S. participated in this year’s survey. The beekeepers managed 219,097 colonies nationwide, which represents approximately 8.4% of the honey producing colonies in the country, according to the USDA. During the 2024-2025 survey, annual colony losses among states ranged from 34.3% to 90.5%, which is higher than the previous year’s range of 17.7% to 76.2%.

    According to the survey, it was reported that winter losses were particularly elevated, with an estimated 40.2% of colonies lost. Winter losses exceeded all historical averages since the survey began, including the previous year’s high of 37.7%.

    As loss rates continually rise, U.S. beekeeping operations must find ways to improve production to meet demand. Approximately 75% of crop production depends on pollinators, so without honey bees, U.S. food supply would be significantly affected.

    “Remarkably, many beekeepers have shown exceptional resilience by working to rebuild their colonies and sustain pollination services; efforts that come at significant cost in time, labor, and resources. Consecutive annual losses at these levels jeopardize beekeeping businesses,” said Danielle Downey, executive director of Project Apis m.

  5. Walter Solomon says

    Bees aren’t native to North America. How were things pollinated before they were brought here?

  6. John Morales says

    Walter, depends.

    If by “bees” you mean European honeybees (Apis mellifera), and not the ~4,000 native North American bee species, then they were pollinated by non-bees.

  9. Tethys says

    It is indeed absolutely sweltering in Minnesota this weekend with high humidity and a current temp of 94°F /35°C. It feels like a sauna outside. I am really looking forward to the cooler weather that should arrive tonight, but I’m currently hoping some thunderheads start forming and we get a little rain on the poor stressed plants and wildlife.
    We haven’t cooled down at night and it’s really difficult to adjust to such a huge temperature swing from our typical wonderful 80 something daytime and 60 or less at night.

    The bee appears to be one of the native mason species. It is quite small. The plant is an Erigeron , a native wildflower commonly called daisy fleabane.

    I don’t know if the native bees are subject to the colony collapse that is currently decimating the European honeybees, but I do note that by providing a season long supply of pollinator nectar plants, and discrete piles of brush in my yard for nesting and overwintering, that I’ve got a healthy population of native bees and pollinators. I occasionally see honeybees but most of them are various bumblebees, and a wide variety of these smaller native bees. They are also solitary nesters, so the mites don’t spread as easily.

    I’m too hot to digest or discuss the latest horrific political news, but the asinine order defunding science and research has been ruled unconstitutional. I’m sure el douché will appeal, but hopefully the SC is scared shitless by the fruits of their treachery and will tell him to pound sand.

  11. John Morales says

    [meta]

    BTW, https://www.etymonline.com/word/mellifluous

    Mellifluous (adj.), early 15c., “sweet as honey, pleasing, sweetly or smoothly flowing,” from Late Latin mellifluus “flowing with (or as if with) honey,” from Latin mel (genitive mellis) “honey” + fluus “flowing,” from fluere “to flow.”

  12. Tethys says

    Mélissa is the Greek for honeybee (f) and meli the Greek word for honey. There is a myth about baby Zeus being hidden away from his cannibal father and fed on milk and honey by nymphs.

    Honey and beekeeping are fairly ancient traditions that necessarily predate the discovery of wine-making.

  13. John Morales says

    [meta: Tethys is the Greek Titan goddess of fresh water, mother of river gods and Oceanids, and wife of Oceanus]

  15. John Morales says

    But it’s an entity, and it’s your ‘nym, Tethys.

    (Anyway. I’ve always been aware)

    —

    Hey, my wife is super-keen to do Zumba.

    Dancercise, basically aerobics.

    (Zumbar is to buzz, in Spanish, and a play on ‘rumbar’ — rumba, zumba, right? ;)

  16. Tethys says

    Lol, only you would inform me what my own nym is as if I am somehow unaware of its meaning and Greek origin. You might notice the photo next to the nym is in fact an ocean.

    Aren’t zumbas also a brand of athletic pants from the 80s? I personally hate aerobics, but good for your wife for having an interest in staying fit and active.

  17. John Morales says

    “Lol, only you would inform me what my own nym is as if I am somehow unaware of its meaning and Greek origin.”

    No, I was noting I was aware of it.

    Your self-centered focus is noted, Tethys.

  18. beer says

    @17

    Generally, people will interpret such posts as you trying to educate them, especially when the purpose of the post is not explicit but rather is some vague and off-topic factoid.

    And calling out someone for being self-centered in the same post as just such an unsolicited factoid (posted “just to let you know I know”) seems hilariously unaware to me.

  19. Snidely W says

    That might not be a bee. I don’t see any pollen baskets.
    It could be a Pompilid (family Pompilidae), AKA spider wasps, or spider-hunting wasps.
    PZ, you might ‘hate’ them.
    They are fun to watch when they are hunting, though.

  20. Tethys says

    @beer I had the same thought, and a good chuckle at the idea that I’m self-centered about my own nym. What!?

    In any case, Mason bees don’t have pollen baskets (scopa) on their legs, they have a scopa under their abdomen.

    I’m not 100% sure of the exact species, but I’m pretty confident this is one of the small carpenter bees that aren’t technically carpenter bees. They have a weak scopa on their hind legs that is hard to see. There is video at the link that includes a quick honeybee cameo for size comparison. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceratina

  21. John Morales says

    [beer, Tethys and I have commented on this blog for at least a decade, maybe two.
    Generally, people should know how I operate after that long. Often, they do.
    And, especially after I wrote “(Anyway. I’ve always been aware)”, one should get that I am saying I am aware, not that I am informing her as to the meaning of her ‘nym. Riffing on meanings, I was. But not, she thought I was trying to tell her it.

    Consider your concern duly noted, and your well-meaning advice taken every bit as seriously as it deserves and filed appropriately]

  22. Tethys says

    Now you’re being dishonest John, as it’s very clear even to a new commenter that you are being trollish and more than a little patronizing for no apparent reason other than self- aggrandizement. Putting ( meta) on your comment doesn’t change the fact that your comment was directed to me, and off topic.

    I would be far more impressed if you could identify the location of my photo. I will narrow it down to the Pacific Ocean looking east, and it’s a bit of a joke. I’m pretty sure it was discussed in TET at some point in the last 13 years I’ve been here.

  23. John Morales says

    Now you’re being dishonest John, as it’s very clear even to a new commenter that you are being trollish and more than a little patronizing for no apparent reason other than self- aggrandizement.

    There, there, Tethys. My intent was to be playful, but I sometimes forget how fragile some people’s egos are.

    Anyway, no need for such a bee in your bonnet.

    Also, I am not interested in landscapes, I’m interested in terminology and symbology, and I’m not trying to impress you.

    (I can do that without trying)

    (Geoguessing is for other people)

    —

    BTW, these days it’s TIT, not TET.

    (tits ain’t boobies)

  24. lumipuna says

    Mélissa is the Greek for honeybee (f) and meli the Greek word for honey.

    This is actually very old Indo-European vocabulary, and it was also borrowed into some Uralic languages thousands of years ago – complete with the association between bee and honey. In Finnish, honeybee is mehiläinen (a diminutive derivation of mehi, a variant of the old word body), while mesi is an archaic word for honey. The modern word for honey is hunaja, a more recent Germanic loan.

  25. seachange says

    #5 Walter Solomon

    You didn’t overtly ask this, but you kinda did ask the implied question. Even though the native Americans were able to find/grow food before any European came here, most foods we actually eat in America are from Eurasia (and to a lesser extent Africa) where the honeybee and its africanized version is from. It’s not likely that we could feed our much larger population with native foods, even if we tried. We just haven’t made much of an effort to make them more arable and more edible.

    Sometimes honeybees will pollinate native species. But not all of them. Many native bees all around the world only pollinate one species or a few species of plants, they have co-evolved. So adventurous honeybees will decimate the native bees.

  26. seachange says

    Varroa mites, my greasy hairy keister. Maybe so, maybe not. But not as big an effect as is claimed.

    A significant amount of fruits, vegetables, and nuts that the US eats is grown in California. There are owners of huge hives that move them from field to field as the weather warms up and each crop blooms. These owners make big money doing this, so they are stressing the bees totally the heck out by transporting them long distances and not giving them time to settle. That huge trailer crash of hives in Oregon? Yeah, that. Doing this can cause colony collapse.

    Also megafarmers (and sometimes small farmers who are in a financial squeeze) fucking goddam lie about whether or not they have used pesticides that kill bees to the people whose business it is to move those honeybees around. This is a horrible bind. The beekeepers can’t say what they suspect without proof, or they will lose (sometimes very) big business. Other farmers can’t complain without because then this increases the costs of renting bees. That is to say if your neighbors crops are poisoned, the bees you have rented might fly over there. Because bees do the things that bees do for bee reasons, they fly where they like. Doing this can cause colony collapse.

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