Cyclops Bees!

Text of the article

On May 29, 2024, an “aberrant honey bee specimen” was intercepted at the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) White Springs Interdiction Station, on I-75 in northern Florida. This specimen, identified as a worker, had a single compound eye — a “cyclops.”1 The specimen was found deceased among tomatoes in a tractor trailer full of various agricultural items originating from Kingsville, Canada.

Unusual morphological abnormalities in honey bees have been reported previously, including an abnormality of the compound eye designated as a “cyclops” phenotype.2 This characteristic has been described from other [stinging insect species] in the United States,3,4,5 and Chiapas, Mexico.6 ... It remains unknown what caused the death of the aberrant specimen and whether or not other bees were present. Upon close inspection, the compound eye abnormality was sent to the Division of Plant Industry within the [FDACS] for further examination. Apart from the unusual, conjoined eyes and a smaller head, this worker honey bee appeared to be typical (Figure 1) with no other abnormalities detected.

Previously reported eye [structure] abnormalities of honey bees include three phenotypes: eyeless, reduced facet, and cyclops.7 Both eyeless and reduced facet have only been reported in drones; the cyclops phenotype occurs in both drones and workers.7 Instead of two distinct compound eyes, in individuals exhibiting the cyclops phenotype, the compound eyes merge into a crescent shape at the top of the head, with reduced or absent ocelli [the simple eyes atop the head].3,5

Whether or not the eyes are functional is unclear. Some reports described the afflicted specimens engaging in activity such as foraging,5 and others described the specimen as disoriented.3 The cyclops bee reported herein was found in a shipment of tomato fruit, suggesting the bee retained some capacity to forage.

Fig. 1 Images of a cyclops bee

The preceding is from “A morphological description of ‘Cyclops’ honey bee,” Epperson et al.1 Consider also this 1931 description by Dr Erwin Alfonsus3:

3525 lenses (“ommatidia”) compared to the normal 5082 (I’m assuming this was a calculation and not the result of literally counting them). One wonders if a reexamination of the original hive these cyclopes came from (What’s the collective noun for cyclopes? A spectacle?) would reveal more specimens. Alfonsus obliges us:

During an experiment on labor division in a bee colony, a daily marking of newly emerged bees with color-dots on the thorax or abdomen was undertaken. [On] August 4, 1930 ... one of these bees attracted my attention by its unusual manner of locomotion. It moved slowly as all young bees do, but backwards instead of forward, in a manner characteristic of crayfish. Taking the specimen in my hand I noticed its extremely narrow face. An examination under the binocular microscope revealed the fact that I was dealing with a freak bee, a bee with only one compound eye. ... In the laboratory the specimen continued to march backwards and ate in a normal manner the droplets of honey which I offered it from the tip of a toothpick. I could not make it crawl forward even though I placed the honey a short distance in front of its head.2

How rare is this? I would have thought freakishly rare, but when in 1936 Dr Frank Miller, inspired by Alfonsus’ paper, wanted to examine the brain of a cyclops bee, he was easily able to receive “several specimens of Italian bees possessing only one eye apparently similar to the one Alfonsus found” and also “several pupae as well as ... adults of both workers and drones.” Miller notes that the ocelli (simple eyes) though not apparent from visual examination of the exterior of the head, are there, just hidden in the antennal cavities and with no nerves. And “when viewed from without, even with the aid of a powerful microscope, there is no evidence that the eye is the result of the fusion of the two normal eyes, but [on dissection] the presence of two distinct

Alfonsus in his continued description notes that the one eye of the cyclops bee he observed was about the same size as a single compound eye of a normal worker, though it only had

From Epperson 2025

Repeated thorough examinations of the colony, from which the abnormal specimen was obtained, failed to reveal any bees with similar characteristics.

https://www.glenn-apiaries.com/oddball.htm

Fig. 2 Drones of various eye colors, by Tom Glenn, Glenn Apiaries

basement membranes” evidences the fusion of the two eyes.4

Miller comments that “the fact that there were so many of these specimens is interesting in the light of Alfonsus’ statement that diligent search failed to find a second individual in his hive.”3 Apparently, when it does occur, one may or may not have a few of them. A study at my alma mater, University of California Davis, looked at this in 1965,8 and found:

Within the rare colonies where it has been found, cyclops occurs in low frequency. Lotmar9 reported one colony with about 2 percent of cyclops worker bees. Kerr and Laidlaw12 found about 4 percent of the workers and drones to be cyclops in another colony. A more recent occurrence of cyclops at the University of California at Davis was a single drone among 3598 noncyclops drones, or 0.03 percent.

The paper looks at the questions of how does this happen and, if one is mad enough to try, can one breed cyclops bees?

The mode of inheritance of cyclops is not clear. That cyclops has occurred in definite progenies with constant proportions of workers and drones showing the phenotype suggests some mode of inheritance through the eggs of the mother queen.9 In one incidence of cyclops (Dittrich, quoted by Lotmar9), the capacity to produce cyclops was passed on to a second-generation queen. One attempt to establish a cyclops-producing line by matings with cyclops drones failed, even following a backcross of F1 queens to cyclops drones.9 A later mating of an

Fig. 3 From Tom Glenn, Glenn Apiaries

the darkest eye color, garnet, fly well enough to mate naturally.”7 (Many appear to be completely blind, I believe the white-eyed ones usually are).

unrelated queen to a single cyclops drone failed again to establish a line that produced the cyclops phenotype; none of the F1 queens produced cyclops.

In reference to genetic anomolies, I myself have encountered white-eyed drones as well as red-skinned workers. These are both the result of recessive genes, which are particularly apt to exhibit themselves in drones since they have only one set of genes.

There are at least 30 genetic mutant phenotypes of honey bee.7 A phenotype is the specific physical appearance of a given set of genes. The related word “genotype” refers to the underlying genes but, for example, if different genetic genotypes happen to look the same, they make up the same phenotype — this all sounds a lot more neutral and scientific than in 1948 when Dr Haydak wrote,10 “Because of the small number of these monstrosities there was no opportunity to observe their behavior. However, Eckert (1937) reported that the monstrosities of a similar type found in a colony in California behaved as normal bees.” And Eckert (1937) is itself quite simply titled “Honeybee Monstrosities.” (If anyone for some reason wants to write about the early history of cycloptic bees, this Haydak (1948) paper has a lot of early references; apparently the earliest is 1868 from France.)12

Genetic problems might not exhibit themselves as obviously mutant bees but as a failure of brood to survive. To quote the 1978 book “Abnormalities and Noninfectious Diseases”:

While the goal of a breeding program is usually to develop a “pure” line from which you’ve eliminated negative traits, if you find you’re starting to see genetic anomalies such as these, it’s time to bring in some new genetics — ideally a really good queen or even top-of-the-line “breeder queen” from a breeder known for great bees, to inject good genetics into what is evidently a shallow gene pool.

Anyway, of the 30 mutant phenotypes, 20 are related to eye color, three to eye structure (the three mentioned in the initial blockquote of this article), five for wings, and one for body color.7 You’ll likely have heard of the body color mutation, cordovan bees. The 20 eye-color mutations “range from almost white through various shades of yellow, red, and brown,”7 (I don’t think “white” needs that “almost” caveat, I’ve seen plenty that I’d call flat-out white,) “Drones of only

Despite research scientists seemingly being able to find cycloptic bees

https://www.glenn-apiaries.com/oddball.html

The severity of this problem [genetic problems leading to scattered or spotty brood] has been documented for the closed and somewhat inbred bee population on Kangaroo Island, South Australia.13 Scattered brood was found in many colonies, which didn’t become very populous. A sample of 34 colonies showed an average brood loss of 24 per cent (range 2-47 percent), and an estimate of only six of the 12 sex alleles present.7

when they want, in over a quarter century of beekeeping now I have never previously heard of this phenomenon myself, so now I’m really curious: Readers, have any of you seen a cyclops bee?

This article first appeared in the June 2025 issue of The Australasian Beekeeper.

References 1. Epperson, K. J., et al., (2025). A morphological description of “Cyclops” honey bee (Apis mellifera L.). Journal of Apicultural Research, 1–3. https://doi.org/10.10 80/00218839.2025.2484065 2. Rothenbuhler, W. C., et al., (1968). Bee genetics. Annual Review of Genetics, 2(1), 413–438. https://doi.org/10.1146/an nurev.ge.02.120168.002213 3. Alfonsus, E. C. (1931). A one-eyed bee (Apis mellifica) (sic). Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 24(2), 405– 408. https://doi.org/10.1093/aesa/24.2.405 4. Miller, F. E. (1936). A histological study of the eye and brain of a one-eyed bee. Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 29(1), 66–69. https://doi. org/10.1093/aesa/29.1.66

5. Hopwood, J. L. (2007). A “Cyclops” of the bee Lasioglossum (Dialictus) bruneri (Hymenoptera: Halictidae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society, 80(3), 259–261. https://doi.org/10.2317/0022- 8567(2007)80[259:ACOTBL]2.0.CO;2 6. Engel, M. S., et al., (2014). A pentocellar female of Caenaugochlora inermis from southern Mexico (Hymenoptera: Halictidae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society, 87(4), 392–394. https://doi. org/10.2317/JKES130907.1 7. Tucker, K. (1978). Honey Bee pests, predators, and diseases (Morse, R., ed., pp. 258–274). Comstock Pub. 8. Laidlaw, H. H., Tucker, K. W., (1965) “Three Mutant Eye Shapes In Honey Bees,” Journal of Heredity, 56(4), pp 190- 192, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjourn als.jhered.a107412 9. Citations internal to Laidlaw 1965, I'll put just in abbreviated form here, in order they occur, as Lotmar 1936, and Kerr 1956. 10. Haydak, M. H., (1948) “Notes on Biology of Cyclopic Bees,” Journal of Economic Entomology, 41(4), pp663–664, https:// doi.org/10.1093/jee/41.4.663 11. Eckert, J.E. (1937). Honeybee Monstrosities. Annals of the Entomological Society of America, Volume 30, Issue 1,

1 March 1937, Pages 64–69, https://doi. org/10.1093/aesa/30.1.64 12. Lucas, M. H. (1868). “Quelques mots sur un cas de cyclopie observe chez un insecte Hymenoptere de la tribu des Apiens (Apis mellifica).” Ann. Soc. Entom. France 37: 787-40. https://www.biodiver sitylibrary.org/page/8557333#page/215/ mode/1up 13. Woyke, J. (1976). Population Genetic Studies on Sex Alleles in the Honeybee Using the Example of the Kangaroo Island Bee Sanctuary. Journal of Apicultural Research, 15(3–4), 105–123. https:// doi.org/10.1080/00218839.1976.11099844

Kris Fricke is the editor of the Australasian Beekeeper, Australia’s national beekeeping magazine. He is originally from Southern California.

This is the plain-text version, extracted from the printed pages for readers who use screen readers, text-only browsers, or prefer reflowable text. Captions and sidebars appear where they fell in the page layout. The typeset pages are available in the reader.