white eyed drone bee

Although I know about white eyed drones from reading First Lessons in Beekeeping, my first live encounter took me by surprise.  I thought to myself, what kind of new insect is peering up between the frames and why would I want to investigate a new question - I already have a long list of hive inspection goals.

Glenn Apiaries has a discussion of inherited recessive genes and their expression in drone offspring   As I found just one drone bee with white eyes.  So, I will (for now) conclude his sightless white eyes are a mutation and not an inherited condition.