OKGANS OF GENERATION. 45 



p 



of the oviduct are from one to five appendages, the most impor- 

 tant of which is the spermqtlieca (the others being sebaceous 

 glands), which receives the fertilizing fluid of the male during 

 sexual union, and in which, according to Darwin, the male ele- 

 ment "is enabled to keep alive four or five years." 



Insects bisexual. With the exception of the Tardigrades, 

 which are doubtfully referred to the Mites (Acarinci), there are 

 no hermaphrodites among Insects, that is, there are no individ- 

 uals having both male and female organs, and capable of self- 

 impregnation. On the contrary, the sexes are distinct ; Insects 

 are bisexual. 



Hermaphrodites, so-called. Cases not unfrequently occur in 

 which from arrest of development of the embryo, the sexual 

 organs are imperfectly developed, so as to present the appear- 

 ance of being both male and female. "Siebold has investigated 

 some hermaphrodite Honey-bees belonging to the Italian race, 

 obtained from a Dzierzon hive at Constance. He found in 

 many of them a combination of sexual characters, not only in the 

 external parts, but also in the generative organs. The mixture 

 of the external characters is manifested sometimes only in the 

 anterior or posterior part of the body, sometimes in all parts 

 of the body, or only in a few r organs. Some specimens pre- 

 sent male and worker characters on the two sides of the bod}-. 

 The development of the internal organs is singularly correla- 

 ted with these peculiarities of external organization. The sting, 

 Avith its vesicle and gland, is well developed in hermaphrodites 

 with the abdomen of the worker ; soft in those with the drone- 

 abdomen. The seminal receptacle, when present, is empty. 

 The ovaries contain no ova. In the hermaphrodites with the 

 drone-abdomen, the male sexual organs are well developed, and 

 the testes contain spermatozoids. Frequently with testicular 

 and ovarian organs present on each side, the epididymis and 

 copulatory apparatus are w r ell developed, and an imperfect 

 poison-apparatus exists. In these cases the tube contains 

 spermatozoids, but there are no ova in the ovaries. The her- 

 maphrodites are thrown out of the cell by the workers as soon 

 as they emerge, and speedily perish. Siebold ascribes the pro- 

 duction of these hermaphrodites to an imperfect fecundation 

 of the ovum." (Zeitschrift fur Wissenschaftliche Zoologie, 

 1864, p. 73. See Guuther's Zoological Review for 1864.) 



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