Oct 14, 2021, 17:15
Cui Chenxi holds the English textbook in which a picture of a bee is actually that of a hoverfly.
An eagle-eyed 12-year-old boy who found an error in an English textbook has been vindicated by the publisher promising to correct the mistake in the next print edition, Liaoshen Evening News reported.
Cui Chenxi, a seventh-grader from Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, found that the picture of a bee in the textbook was actually a hoverfly.
"The differences between bees and hoverflies are quite easy to spot. Bees have two pairs of wings, while hoverflies have only one. The belly is fat for bees but thin for hoverflies," Cui told the newspaper.
The publisher admitted the mistake after consulting with experts. It said it would replace the picture in the next print edition and thanked Cui for noticing the mistake.
Cui's mother described her son as a devoted lover of biology.
Both bees (Bombyliids) and hoverflies (Syrphids) are flies which are flower nectar collectors and crop pollinators. The hoverfly can hover like a drone.
If the publisher changes the picture to show a fat bee or change the word to show hoverfly, doing so will dilute the fact that both bee and hoverfly can visit the same flower.
But since it's easier to read 'bee' than 'hoverfly', then the insect picture should be changed.
But that doesn't change the fact both bee and hoverfly visit flowers.
(why am i here in this comment box?)
ren
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