aggienaut: (Default)

   On May 29th, 2024, on a remote forest road in northern Florida, an aberrant honey bee specimen was intercepted at the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services [FDACS] AG Station 9B. This specimen, identified as a worker, had a single compound eye, described previously as the “Cyclops” phenotype.(1)

   The specimen was found in a tractor trailer originating from Kingsville, Canada carrying a shipment of assorted agricultural items. The specimen was found deceased on tomato fruit (Solanum lycopersicum L.) within the shipment. 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.

   Unusual morphological abnormalities in honey bees have been reported previously, including an abnormality of the compound eye designated as a “Cyclops” phenotype.(2) 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.

[Paper continues on to dissection and measurement notes]

Cyclops.jpg

   The above is a (slightly paraphrased to smooth over scientific awkward writing style) excerpt from "A Morphological Description of 'Cyclops' Honey Bee" by Epperson et al 2025.

   But this is not the first such "aberrant specimen" found. The first cyclops bee on record as far as I've found is from 1868, (if you want to contribute to science and can read French you can tell me what that says, since I can't cut paste it into google translate and my french isn't up to reading pages of scientific writing). Another relatively early description is delightfully creepy:

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)

   Writing in 1948 Dr Mykola Haydak writes “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 that referenced Eckert 1937 is itself titled quite simply titled “Honeybee Monstrosities” and lists some other specimens that honey bees no doubt whisper about at sleepovers to terrify eachother.



   This is just an abbreviated summary of an article I just wrote for the Australasian Beekeeper. In writing it I had some more general thoughts on cyclopes. A singular cyclops is of course a cyclops. Plural can either be cyclopses (boring and awk) or cyclopes, which I adopted. I found even the papers trying to be serious couldn't avoid using a word for "cyclops like," for which they used either cyclopean or cycloptic. But most shockingly, there seems to be no collective noun for a group/herd/mob/clan of cyclops! I had fun brainstorming this topic and came up with the following options:
• a Spectacle of cyclopes (my favorite, though it would seem best suited to a pair of cyclopes
• an Ocular of cyclopes
• an Optimism of cyclopes
• a Cycle of cyclopes
• a Cyclone of cyclopes
• a Cycosis of cyclopes
• an Eyefull of cyclopes
• a Somebody (or Everybody) of cyclopes (get it, get it??)

   Or any other suggestions???

aggienaut: (gavel)

I. OMG Bees!!
   So earlier today I'm sitting at my desk and I look up to see our yard is filled with bees. I think "oh the bees are swarming again," but then I realize, oh wait we don't HAVE any bees anymore. I run out to investigate. By the time I get my shoes on the swarm has moved up the hill. I find a clump of bees about 2/3rds the size of a basketball on a branch.
   Later mum comes home and I tell her about it. She says we're still getting bee droppings on our cars regularly (lots of little yellow dots) and speculates that maybe there is a colony very close that we are not aware of. We're looking at our roof and seeing nothing. Just for novelty's sake I mention that bees usually inhabit the pitch where two parts of the roof come together and we go around to look at that part of our roof. Lo, there are bees there!! Further observation indicates they are probably just scouts from the passing swarm though (they were just bouncing around rather than making, so to speak, a bee-line in and out).
   There was some discussion of having me execute the swarm. Interestingly though, while I generally didn't feel overly much remorse when I killed hundreds of thousands of bees a day for my job, the prospect of killing some on my own time actually feels rather morally unsettling to me. d=


II. Defendant Rights in ASUCD
   As one will recall, recent prominant ASUCD Case # 34 regarded whether a witness could be considered the party to a closed session on an ASUCD employee's job performance, and therefore override that employee's wish to have the session closed. The ASUCD Supreme Court found that the codes clearly stated that only "the appointee / employee being discussed" had a right to cause the session to be closed.
   Subsequently, counsel for the Defense (ie those who lost the case), have written a Senate Bill which would change the bylaws to support their side. It redefines party as "(1) The ASUCD employee or appointee the session has been called on. (2) Any witness giving testimony that the Senate President Pro Tempore has deemed to be a Party in the matters discussed in the closed session."
   Incidently, the background for the bill reads "A recent court case showed that there was a need to define the term “party” in the bylaws on closed sessions." I think its debatable at best if the case "showed" that. I was there and I found the current definition of who had the relevant rights to be extremely clear.

   Anyway, the point is this is about the right to confront one's accuser. If the defendant waives their right to privacy, they should not be accused of anything the accuser wouldn't say in public. Also I remind you, the Defendant is the person with everything to lose in the situation, they are the one whose rights should be carefully protected.
   Now it has been mentioned, almost ad absurdum but vaguely possible, that it might be that the case regards sexual harassment, and therefore the witness-victim may have legitimate privacy rights. Firstly, this will certainly be the exception, rather than the rule, as it does not resemble the circumstances of 99% of Closed Sessions. Secondly, ASUCD is NOT the appropriate primary forum for addressing such a problem, the Police or at least Student Judicial Affairs (SJA) is. And with that thought in mind, I'd say I could agree to allowing sealed witness testimony IF it is only allowed if the witness has already filed a report1 on the same subject with SJA or the PD, and minutes of the entire proceeding are made available to that same investigatory body. I believe nothing less than this would prevent sealed witness testimony from being abused.

   And it should be noted that this is being changed in light of the circumstances of Case 34. The closed session that was the subject of Case 34 CERTAINLY would not fall under an allowable circumstance for sealed witness testimony. That situation was entirely political, Peake could have chosen not to participate, and/or the other persons involved would have had just as much a right to say harmful things about him outside of the session as in it, its closure just allowed him, a politician, a venue to subject Savaree-Ruess, a politician, to a political circus without being judged himself (though it should be noted that it wasn't Peake's idea to call it, but he instigated its closure to the public). And furthermore, since the matter was already being discussed at length in public, all the closure allowed was for the Senate to deliberate in private, which is even further from allowable circumstances.

   Anyway, fortunately this idea to vindictively redefine parties was shot down in Internal Affairs Commission, where incidently both Case 34 Plaintiff Kai Savaree-Ruess and Case 34 Defense Counsel Paul Harms are former chairpersons. Sources tell me it devolved into some kind of shouting match.
   Reportedly upon being voted down Harms commented "This isn't the IAC I used to know." Which is ironic because before HE "knew" IAC, Savaree-Ruess was its charismatic chairperson for much longer. Though Harms' brief experience as the chair of IAC (before being shamefully dismissed and left with no position at all by the Senate) was the pinnacle of his ASUCD career, he should have known better than to think he'd have more influence there than Savaree-Ruess.


   And such is the hard-hitting ASUCD commentary I can provide to you when I'm for the first time in four years not under an obligation to remain unbiased. Incidently I have it on good authority that I was originally put on the Court to shut me up. (=
   Though actually I'm still on the Court for another forty minutes. I feel this is a de minimis consideration however.

Coming Soon: The current ASUCD Cold War

aggienaut: (fiah)

   So it turns out that bees can sting.

   Normally bees in migratory swarms are very docile. Normally under any conditions one would be safe three floors below bee activity. However, one of the bees today apparently didn't get the memo on that and dive bombed my face and stung me in the eyebrow.
   Normally stings to one's head actually less bad than other areas. I imagine its because one's body puts a very high priority on keeping things under control around one's head. Stings near one's eye can cause ridiculous swelling, but this one was pretty much in my eyebrow, so I figured I'd forget about it in ten minutes.
   In ten minutes I noticed it was getting unusually puffy. After this job we had an hour until our next job so we parked in a park and I took a nap.. when I woke up I could only open one eye!
   For two or three hours I had to make do without depth perception until the swelling started to subside again for my left eye to come back on line.


see also



   When I first started working at Bee Busters there was another assistant technician who got a similar sting. The next day he didn't show up for work and we never saw him again.


   Sometime while I wasn't around between last year and this they had an assistant technician named Raoul. Raoul made sure his uniform was always several sizes too large, and refused to ever wear a veil because he thought he was hardcore. No one liked him very much.
   One day he got one of these eye-swelling stings. When one of the technicians asked boss Dave what happened, Dave said "oh he mouthed off to me so I decked him." And knowing how things are, the technician believed this for a week until he was told otherwise (there's a hole in the wall of the garage from when Dave got mad about something - not one of us though)
   Shortly, Raoul got fired. He now works for our competitor, "the Bee Man."


Previously on Emosnail
   Year Ago Today: A Wee Possum - Seriously is that not the cutest thing ever?

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