Honey Bee spotted 18 days before start of Spring

My son and I went on a “bug hunt” Friday afternoon and despite a stiff wind, we found a couple of photo-worthy specimens.

The insect, pictured at right, appears to be a Honey Bee (Apis mellifera), and we spotted it on a dandelion that was growing on the shady, north end of our house. I thought it was interesting that we spotted this bee 18 days before the first official day of Spring, which technically begins this year on March 22.

According to the National Audubon Society’s “Field Guide to Insects & Spiders,” there are three types of Honey Bees – male drones, sterile female workers and queens. The guide says that drones are “more robust with largest compound eyes,” and workers are the smallest of the three. Queens are “elongate with smallest compound eyes and larger abdomen.”

I think the Honey Bee pictured above is sterile female worker, because the field guide says that “workers visit flowers of many kinds in meadows, open woods, and gardens.” Drones die after mating with a queen and unmated drones are denied food and die, the guide says.

All three types are “mostly reddish brown and black with paler, usually orange-yellow rings on abdomen,” the field guide said. Their heads, antennae and legs are “almost black with short, pale erect hair densest on thorax, least on abdomen.” Their wings are translucent, that is, light can pass through them. Honey Bees also have a pollen basket on their hind tibia, that is, the larger of the lower leg segments.

Honey Bees, which are known for pollinating crops and making honey, are common worldwide, and they build their hives in hollow trees or hives kept by beekeepers. They are often seen swarming around tree limbs. According to the field guide, settlers first brought Honey Bees to North American in the 1600s. For food, adult Honey Bees drink nectar and eat honey.

Here’s what the field guide says about the life cycle of the Honey Bee:

“Complex social behavior centers on maintaining queen for full lifespan, usually two or three years, sometimes up to five. Queen lays eggs at intervals, producing a colony of 60,000-80,000 workers, which collect, produce and distribute honey and maintain hive. Workers feed royal jelly to queen continuously and to all larvae for first three days; then only queen larvae continue eating royal jelly while other larvae are fed bee bread, a mixture of honey and pollen. By passing food mixed with saliva to one another, members of hive have chemical bond.

“New queens are produced in late spring and early summer; old queen then departs with a swarm of workers to found new colony. About a day later the first new queen emerges, kills other new queens and sets out for a few days of orientation flights. In 3-16 days, queen again leaves hive to mate, sometimes mating with several drones before returning to hive.

Friday afternoon’s trip was our second “bug hunting” trip the kids and I made this year, and we conducted it like we do all of our bug hunts. We make one lap around the yard, checking the various trees and bushes for any sign of life.

Sometimes we find insects, sometimes we don’t, but I’ve often been surprised by the number and variety of insects that visit our one-acre yard. As the seasons change and temperatures become more insect-friendly, look for more insect photos and descriptions to follow in the coming weeks.