Honeybee with White Eyes and Thorax

Drone with white eyes and thorax. Photo: Ben Pouliquen

In April we were visiting our bees in Shakopee, one of our first Spring inspections and at the entrance lying dead on it's side I found this bee. From standing up, I could see that the honeybee had some white marks, and wondered why it was "painted" white! To my surprise, when I knelt down to pick up the cadaver, I realised that it was not paint but part of its body. It was obviously a male (drone), wider and stouter body and huge eyes. I had never seen this in my life. I took the little body and place it in a small match box, placing it in my pocket as if it was a great treasure.

I went to the University of Minnesota and started showing my bee around, no one could answer me. I then decided to see Dr. Marla Spivak...right away without hesitation: "It is a gene mutation! But I have never seen one (honeybee) with its thorax white." She went on to explain that drones are developed from unfertilized eggs giving them only one set of chromosomes, meaning that all recessive genes are expressed in drones, and nothing can be hidden by any dominant genes. Dr. Spivak also mentioned that although it a rare occurrence,  drones can live in the hive for quite some time as it is dark and no one  need to see (all bees use their antennae and are guided by pheromone). Although mine had pearly white eyes and thorax, she had seen some variations ranging from ivory, garnet, reddish and even chartreuse! Those drones are blind and as  they fly out of the hive they will get lost, unable to get back and will soon die.

I looked on line and found this interesting diagram of possible combinations of white eyed honeybees. So far I have not heard of or seen another white eye and thorax honeybee. I brought a picture to my Hobby Beekeepers Club, no one had seen one in their beekeeping's lifetime! I guess I was lucky!

www.glenn-apiaries.com/oddball.html