Wasp, hornet, yellow jacket, mud daubers - all are common names, and the general public intermixes usage and confuses with bees.
That's why entomologists use latin names. In the USA, the Entomological Society of America has a list of approved 'common' names.
That's why, despite dictionaries listing the name of our favorite bee as honeybee, the ESA insists that it should be honey bee, since we also have bumble bees, leaf cutter bees, mason bees, etc. From the entomological perspective, the honey bee hasn't a claim to jump to the front of the list and get to merge the two words.
As we all know, in English, noun noun combinations like green house tend to start as two words, are hyphenated (green-house), and then with widespread usage, merge as one word, greenhouse.
What surprises me is how many bee journals use honeybee instead of the official, approved honey bee. I suspect its the 'making' them a pet syndrome.
Jerry
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