September 17th Meeting

 

Tonight we were treated to ”The Honeybee” by Deb Merrill. Classification talks are always the best & tonight’s was no exception! Deb concluded by hosting a honey sampling complete with crackers and individual tasting spoons.

 
Deb gave a very informative technical talk-she has learned a lot about bees! Consequently, I could not keep up in the dark and have relied on www.arkive.org for more information: 

“The honey bee (Apis mellifera) is probably one of the best-known of all insects in the world as it performs a vital role in the pollination of flowering plants, including our crop species. There are three 'castes' within a bee hive, a 'queen' (the reproductive female), the 'drones' (reproductive males) and 'workers' (non-reproductive females. All three castes are broadly similar in appearance; the body is covered in short hairs, and is divided into a head, a thorax and an abdomen, the head features two large eyes and a pair of antennae. The thorax bears two pairs of wings above, and three pairs of legs below and there is a slender 'waist' between the thorax and abdomen. The queen has a much longer and slender abdomen than the workers, and the drones can be identified by their broader abdomens and much larger eyes.”

 

During her talk she called our attention to the deleterious effect of pesticides on our insert population.

 

Honeybees are the only insects that produce food for human consumption.