James, There was an excellent article published in the March/April 2016 edition of the Virginia Wildlife magazine which is published by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, and was really an eye opener for me. The title of the article was "Upland Pollinators: "The Bee's Knees" and was written by Marie Majarov. Some items mentioned are: estimated 130,000 to 300,000 pollinators species worldwide, including birds and bats, "but the vast majority of pollinators are insects: bees and their kin, delicate butterflies, and months, sturdy flies often resembling bees, and various colorful beetles." Other things mentioned are 85 percent of the world's flowering plants and approximately 72 percent of crops grown for food, fibers, beverages. condiments, spices and medicines are directly dependent on pollinators! There is really a wealth of information in this article such as honey bees, while being very important, are not native to this country, and many of our native pollinators can perform many tasks on our native plants even more efficiently as they have adapted with the plants of their communities. This is just a small part of what is covered in the article and if you wish I will contact the Commission for permission to send you a copy or perhaps it may be offered online. Take care! Corky

Just a quick correction: Carpenter bee adults do all the drilling in the wood. They make a tube and stock cells in order from the inside end, packing with pollen and an egg, then sealing the cell and making the next one until the tube is near full. Since the first is oldest, you'd think it would chew out through the rest, killing them -- but no! They all wait after they mature until all are ready, then exit in reverse order, triggered when one gets too antsy. They chew out the partitions and then wait head to butt until the outer one has exited, and follow out. Any that have died growing up just get chewed up in the process. The larva do not chew in the wood, only eating the pollen until they pupate in situ, and follow the tunnel when adult. Of course, to a home owner, this detail makes no difference at all! There are a number of beetles and some wasps that bore in wood as larvae, but not carpenter bees.

Actually, I believe that I see more carpenter bees than bumble or honey bees. Homeowners having cedar siding weatherboard on their homes are not very fond of them because they drill a hole into the siding and lay eggs which hatch and grow into wood eating larva. They seem to eat just beneath and parallel with the grain and the pileated woodpeckers are very adept at listening and then digging them out! That being said, they are very good pollinators and much needed, as are the woodpeckers that feed on their larva!

Well, you’ve collared both me and my college ex-roommate. And both our specialties apply – he’s an English major interested in the history of words (etymologist, in part), I’m a bug major interested in the history of bugs (entomologist, in part, specialty crickets). [Incidentally, there’s no final, and you’re welcome to cut class whenever you get bored – Bye. And, for the very short-course, jump to the last paragraph.] To your question, the diagram provided by Mr.B. gives the general outlook. Many parts of bug anatomy reflect human anatomy parts as well – after all, heads are heads, brains are, well, sometimes flea-brains! The cranium of insects usually has a fairly small hole behind, the foramen magnum, and all the connections to the rest of the body must pass through it. The neck has a cylinder of exoskeleton that is not hardened (or not sclerotized) and flexible, sometimes called ‘the neck’!!! Or the cervical conjunctivum a.o. (that’s ‘among others’ - names). There may be several tendons that pass through, allowing controlled movement of the head, and at the bottom are some paired sclerites (hard or stiff plates to each side) that act as pivots. Inside the top is the single dorsal aorta from the tubular heart, the latter with many paired valves allowing blood (hemolymph) in, but closing as a peristaltic wave moves forward, pushing the blood into the head and brains. It’s an ‘open system’ as the blood flows freely back through the neck and body; there may be some auxiliary pumps that feed into the legs. Insects have more brains than us – 6 (3 pairs) to be exact, but sometimes parts are fused, and other parts separated in different species, but connected by bilateral paired connectives. Starting above the oesophagus, the protocerebrum (usually largest, enervating the eyes) and deutocerebrum (second, for the antennae) and tritocerebrum (handling messages from the body, a.o.), then connecting around the oesophagus (the circumoesophageal connectives, now there’s a vocabulary word!) to the suboesophageal ganglion controlling the mouthparts, and on through the neck as a paired ventral nerve cord. {Interesting factoid, nerve-cord-on-bottom is the original animal layout, the vertebrates reversed it to n-c-on-top, and in the same change, the mouth became the anus, and … , well, you get it (do we all speak out of our _ _ _?)} Obviously, the digestive tract also passes through the neck. A number of glands have ducts that do also, the salivary glands are in the thorax, others in the head, though most are ‘neurosecretory’ (like our pituitary or pineal bodies) and discharge into the blood.

And last, the tracheal (breathing) system has several tubes that stem from the thorax into the head, often with a ventral trunk carrying air back into the body – the dorsal pair is probably what shows in the bee photograph, along with some tendons. Good luck!!!!! [I put this last to trick you into reading some buggy stuff!] P.s. Nice photo!