October 11, 1983

The United States Commission on Civil Rights says in a new report that two years of fiscal austerity and staff reductions have seriously eroded the enforcement of civil rights by the Federal Government. The report asserted that there had been a noticeable decline in enforcement at six agencies, the Departments of Justice, Education, Labor, Health and Human Services and Housing and Urban Development and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.. In some areas, such as housing, it said, compliance reviews and investigations have declined to the point that ''they have become virtually negligible.'' The report is the latest in a series from the commission that has repeatedly criticized the civil rights policies of the Reagan Administration. White House officials contend that such criticism is politically motivated, but commission members deny it. President Reagan is trying to replace three of the six commission members, but the Senate has yet to confirm his nominees.

THE worker struggles valiantly to haul the corpse of another bee out of the hive. She pauses at the entrance platform before flying away with the lifeless body in her grasp. Far from her abode, she drops the carcass in a field, then flies back home and searches for more bodies. She is a honeybee undertaker, one of a small group in the colony whose task is to remove bee cadavers from the hive. Scientists believe that she may refuse to do the jobs of others, and that they may refuse to do hers. The discovery by a Cornell University researcher that a certain corps of bees acts as undertakers is one of several recent findings of previously unknown divisions of labor that enable the bee community to function efficiently.

An Al Hirschfeld drawing yesterday, accompanying a review of the artist's show at Harvard University, lacked a credit line. It was from the Margo Feiden Galleries in New York.

A United Nations dispatch Friday on the reunification of Cyprus incorrectly described the position of President Spyros Kyprianou on a request for a meeting with Turkish Cypriot leaders.

The Executive Changes column in Business Day on Thursday incorrectly described the new position of Paul E. Huber at United Telecommunications Inc. He will be president and chief executive officer of the Megatek Corporation, a subsidiary.