Beekeeping, Biology, & Other Bugs
Some eighty percent of insects undergo complete metamorphosis (“holometaboly”) to reach adulthood, and this lifecycle can be summarised in four steps: egg –> larva –>
Written by: Entomologically
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In simplified taxonomy, the classification “Order” is preceded by Class (Insecta), Phylum (Arthropoda) and Kingdom (Animalia). This Part One1 deals with the hemimetabolous (or “heterometabolous”)
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An insect is a creature with six legs (“hexapod”) and three body parts, belonging to the taxonomic class “Insecta”. “Six legs and three body parts”
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Part One covered the micronutrients. Part two deals with the secondary metabolites, those compounds with deterring (or attracting) functions: alkaloids, flavonoids, phenolics, the inorganic ions,
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Nectars are carbohydrates predominantly composed of three sugars: sucrose, glucose and fructose. The non-carbohydrate component is minor and differs by species in terms of amino
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Bees & Biology, Entomology-Biology
Did you know that ~20% of males in the solitary bee genus Megachile (“leafcutter bees”) have modified forelegs that serve as pheromone-secreting glands for attracting
Written by: Entomologically
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Bees & Biology, Entomology-Biology
With the first plants came the first plant-feeding insects, some 300 million years ago in the Carboniferous period. Later emergents were the flowering plants of
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Bees are pollinators, and honey bees are the species commonly used as commercial pollinators. Almonds, apples, apricots, asparagus and all the way to zucchini –
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Bees & Biology, Entomology-Biology
The superorganism model describes how social insects like bees, ants, wasps and termites behave as single, coordinated parts within a whole (the colony). Each part
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Bees & Biology, Entomology-Biology
Reader John asked this in response to bees eating their larvae. From a human perspective, bees are not “vegetarian”. Indeed, diseased and weak young larvae
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