50 [February, 



Queen ! Now, the poison sac, with the sting and all its appendages, is entirely 

 distinct from the sperma-theca, and can easily be recognized without the aid of 

 the microscope. He does not seem to have examined, microscopically, the fluid 

 in what he calls the seminal vesicle, in order to demonstrate, by the presence of 

 spermatozoa, that it was the semen of the male. As I am not aware that this 

 has been done by any one else, I hereby communicate to the Academy the 

 results of such an examination made last month, by Dr. Joseph Leidy of 

 this city. 



The Queen dissected was taken from an observing hive in which she had been 

 lodged in the Summer of 1851, having accompanied a first swarm from a hive 

 which had been swarmed in 1850. I am certain that she was not a Queen of 

 the current year, for she commenced ovi-depositing in the empty cells which the 

 hive contained, the same day in which she was put into it ; whereas young 

 Queens, which are not impregnated until after they are established as heads of a 

 new colony, do not begin to lay until after the lapse of several days. I know 

 that she was the same Queen lodged by me in the hive, as the bees were in a 

 hive of my own invention, in which they were exposed to the full light of day, 

 and were under constant inspection. She was therefore nearly two years old. 

 The males in this colony had all been killed in August and there was not one 

 in the hive (Jan. 27th) when she was taken from it. 



Plate XIX in Swammerdam's History of Insects, represents very accurately 

 all the parts which were particularly examined. The small globular vessel 

 (fig. 3-t.) which Swammerdam thought secreted a mucous fluid to attend the 

 eggs to the bottom of the cells, was found to be the true sperma-theca. Its 

 internal diameter was the l-33d of an inch, and it was distended with a whitish, 

 viscous fluid which, when examined by the microscope, was found to be filled 

 with spermatozoa. 



I consider, therefore, that this dissection demonstrates that the Queen bee has 

 a reservoir in which the semen of the male is lodged, and that the eggs are im- 

 pregnated as they pass by the duct leading from the sperma-theca into the 

 oviduct. 



Note. Since this paper was written. Dr. Leidy has examined two more Queen bees, 

 each of vvhicli had the sperma-theca distended with the spermatic fluid. These Queens 

 were both reared last Summer from eggs in worker combs, which were furnished to 

 colonies deprived of a Queen. The construction of the hives allowed the whole process 

 to be distinctly seen. 



Mr. Jacob Peirce exhibited a hybrid fowl, being a cross between the 

 Peacock and Guinea Hen. The specimen was one of four which had 

 been hatched and raised on the farm of Mr. David West, in Chester Co,, 

 between Kimberton and the Yellow Springs, Pa. 



ELECTIONS. 



Dr. Joseph Hopkinson, U. S. Navy, Mr. William Strutters, and Mr. 

 J. Da Costa, of Philadelphia, were elected 3Iemhers; and 



Mr. J. W. Foster, U. S. Geologist of the Lake Superior District, and 

 Mr. J. D. Whitney, of the same district, were elected Correspondents of 

 the Academy. 



