Incidentally it is difficult to know whether bumblebees should be bumblebees or bumble bees. Rusty Burlew argues persuasively in favour of bumble bees but the BBCT is the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. Hmm.
Monday, 29 December 2014
End of year favourites - Bees
I started keeping honey bees in 2012 and have since become more and more fascinated by other bees as well. Honey bees, bumblebees and solitary bees all have very different life cycles and all make a vital contribution to pollination. I have great plans for photographing bees (especially solitary bees) next year but here are a few pictures from this year.
Incidentally it is difficult to know whether bumblebees should be bumblebees or bumble bees. Rusty Burlew argues persuasively in favour of bumble bees but the BBCT is the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. Hmm.
Incidentally it is difficult to know whether bumblebees should be bumblebees or bumble bees. Rusty Burlew argues persuasively in favour of bumble bees but the BBCT is the Bumblebee Conservation Trust. Hmm.
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But as you point out, Christopher, it is the BBCT, not the BCT. That extra B must stand for something!
ReplyDeleteI agree Rusty but Dave Goulson, professor of bumblebees at the University of Sussex, author of "A Sting in the Tail", and founder of the BBCT says they chose those intials only because the Bat Conservation Trust (www.bct.org.uk) was already in existence. This side of the Atlantic bumblebee seems to be preferred. Perhaps because, although we are happy with red mason bee, tree bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum) is better than tree bumble bee, etc. We also have sparrowhawks (which are hawks) and not sparrow hawks. For what it is worth, Wikipedia uses bumblebee but acknowledges bumble bee. Charles Darwin (On the Origin of Species) wrote about humble-bees but William Shakespeare (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) humble Bees and Beatrix Potter (The Tale of Mrs Tittlemouse) bumblebees.
DeleteA wonderfully erudite response! Always good to include Darwin and Shakespeare - mind the latter's spelling was hardly consistent!
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