#was gonna q this but fuck it im posting it now and ill srb tomorrow | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bespectacled-grackle · 1 year

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Okay, entomology brain is annoyed by a Tumblr ad

Specifically, this one. First, Albert Einstein never said that.

Secondly, and more importantly, that is NOT a honey bee, or even a bee at all. That is a bee fly, a very important, very cute pollinator. However! They have parasitoid larvae! This means that they lay their eggs in the larvae of other bugs. Those eggs hatch, and those larvae eat the bug they're in from the inside out. Sounds horrible, but it's the way of things and I cannot understate how important these guys are.

The reason I'm annoyed about the picture of choice isn't even that they didn't picture a bee (not even in the right order- bees are hymenopterans. Flies are diptera.) What's really grinding my absolute gears about the choice here? Bee flies parasitize bee larva.

If you're going to use the wrong picture, at least don't use the picture of something that actively kills what you're trying to protect instead of the animal you're protecting.

Also, honeybees, Apis mellifera, don't need protection. They're fine. They're invasive in North America, even. Humans take care of them just fine. I'm a beekeeper, and I love them, but that's not where our efforts should be. We should be trying to protect native bees, there are a whole bunch that I bet you've never heard of that need help.

Anyway, rant over. Sorry, I just could not let that one go.

#honey bees #save the bees #entomology #environmental things #endangered species #ground bees #bumble bees #wasps #was gonna q this but fuck it im posting it now and ill srb tomorrow

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