mutated bee

[dcromwel]

Did my first full inspection of the season 2 days ago with my 8 yr old daughter. Had great fun; she spotted the queen.

But saw a real curiosity, a living crawling bee in the hive with no abdomen! Head and thorax (mid-section?) intact, and all legs there, but no hind quarters. Only one of its kind that we saw. I wondered about mutations I've read about with mite infections, but this little gal was the sole exception. Everyone else looked fine.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

David in Baltimore

[Michael Bush]

My guess is it got pinched somwhere and broke off it's abdomen. Probably in the manipulations. I've seen them before too. They seem to get around pretty well for being missing a large part of their body.



[This message has been edited by Michael Bush (edited March 29, 2004).]

[BULLSEYE BILL]

I saw one once, my first thought was a virus problem. My second thought was that I may have damaged it when I opened the hive. I don't know which it was, but it wasn't trailing any entrails. I didn't know that a bee could live without it's abdomen.

[beegee]

I recently found a worker bee with an oversized head with deformed antennae. She looked like some sort of waterbug. I've also started seeing a few bees that look dusty and shaggy, not fuzzy like new bees.

[bamabee]

I have seen a few in one of my old hives that were actually almost completely white in color. Was a very strange looking bee. A freind told me next time I see one to catch it and send to the state lab here in Alabam so they could look at it.