The Agrinautica

   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]

   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???