Hi all

Using the Ngram Viewer, you will find that "honey bee" was preferred over "honeybee" throughout the 19th century, about 5 to 1. This trend reversed in 1920 and by 1950, the term "honeybee" occurred twice as often as "honey bee." In 2008, the most recent value, "honeybee" is favored 3 to 2.  https://books.google.com/ngrams/

A friend writes:

"By convention of the Entomological Society of America, an insect's common name is two words if the insect is classified in a taxonomic grouping to which the name applies. Thus honey bee, bumble bee and house fly are two words (because the first two are bees and the house fly is a true fly) but dragonfly (not a true fly) and ladybug (not a bug - it is a beetle) are one word common names."

PLB

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