The 29-year-old woman had no idea why her eye was swollen shut. She was in unbearable pain. But when the woman, identified by her surname He, received treatment in Taiwan, doctors didn't find a bacterial infection. While looking at He's eyes through a microscope, Dr. Hung Chi-ting, the head of ophthalmology, witnessed something he hadn't seen before. Insect legs were wiggling from one of her eye sockets. Hung yanked out a small bee, known as Halictidae or a "sweat bee." And it was alive. Soon he extracted a second. And a third. And, finally, a fourth. Craving salt, the bees had been feeding off He's tears, said Hung, who described it as a "world first." "The woman will be fine. The bees will be fine," said Matan Shelomi, an associate professor of entomology at National Taiwan University. "I don't expect we'll ever see it again."
More from Star Tribune
More from Star Tribune
More from Star Tribune
More from Star Tribune
More from Star Tribune
More From Star Tribune
More From Science
World
U.S. seeks to build world pressure on Russia over space nuclear weapon
Concern over the Russian development of a new generation of space nuclear weapons has been growing in Washington.
Duluth
Historic $7.8M jury award in death of Minnesotan struck by driver who was high from huffing aerosol
An attorney for the manufacturer said her client intends to appeal.
Nation
A wild orangutan used a medicinal plant to treat a wound, scientists say
An orangutan appeared to treat a wound with medicine from a tropical plant— the latest example of how some animals attempt to soothe their own ills with remedies found in the wild, scientists reported Thursday.
Nation
Remote Lake Superior island wolf numbers are stable but moose population declining, researchers say
Researchers forced to cut short an annual survey of wildlife on a remote Lake Superior island this winter due to unusually warm weather announced Tuesday that they managed to gather data that shows the wolf population is stable.
Business
After hiring bonanza, tech workers now grapple with layoffs and disillusionment
Companies went on a tech hiring spree in the pandemic, but many of those jobs have since been cut.