Mwalimu-G
Elder Lister
ANIMALS
This rare, mutant honeybee is both male and female
The insect also has yellow eyes, another rare genetic quirk. This combination of odd phenomena likely won’t happen again for a long time, experts say.
“I’ve been keeping bees since 1976, and this is the first time I’ve seen anything like it,” says master beekeeper Joseph Zgurzynski.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ANNIE O'NEILL
3 MINUTE READ
BY JASON BITTEL
PUBLISHED AUGUST 5, 2020
While checking his hives this June, master beekeeper Joseph Zgurzynski discovered something highly unusual. Whereas all the other honeybees in the hive had normal black eyes, one insect sported a pair of creamy yellow peepers that were impossible to miss.
And that wasn’t all. When Zgurzynski looked closer, he realized that not only were the bee’s eyes off-color, but they were abnormally large. In fact, they looked like the radar-dish eyes typical of male honeybees, or drones, despite the fact that the rest of the bee—the abdomen, stinger, and wings—were clearly female.
“I’ve been keeping bees since 1976, and this is the first time I’ve seen anything like it,” says Zgurzynski, who manages around six million bees at his Country Barn Farm just north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Read about how people are working to save honeybees.)
Mutant Honeybee
