OF WASHINGTON. 169 



carefully scraped over the entrance so that scarcely a trace of her 

 work was left, the whole operation lasting about twelve minutes. 

 After this was done, she left, but I caught her. 



In a paper entitled " Observations on the mating of queens of 

 Apis mellifica" Mr. Frank Benton alluded to the great interest 

 which ancient naturalists manifested in regard to reproduction 

 among bees and the mystery surrounding the subject, and cited 

 the views of Swammerdam, De Braw, Reaumur, Huber, and 

 other noted investigators of bee-life during the past century. 

 He described experiments made by Reaumur and Huber to secure 

 artificial fertilization of queens. This was followed by a brief 

 statement of the facts as now known regarding the flights and 

 mating of queens of various races of Apis mellijica, especial 

 mention being made of the view universally accepted at this time 

 that the queen mates but once during her life. In proof of the 

 error of this view, Mr. Benton quoted from his note-book for 

 1886 the records, unpublished as yet, of two queens bred by him 

 in Cyprus which he had watched closely and Which mated the 

 second time ; and he also cited a record published in the Deutsche 

 illustrierte Bienenzeitung for August, 1893, by K. Befort, 

 wherein it was stated that a certain queen had mated twice, 

 the second time two days after the first. Mr. Benton believed these 

 three observations were made with sufficient accuracy to prove 

 beyond doubt that queens do in some instances mate twice, not 

 withstanding the fact that for a half century or more the opposite 

 view has been held. 



The paper was discussed by Messrs. Riley, Benton, Gill, 

 Schwarz, and Pergande. Professor Riley stated that with the 

 bottle-bee of the West Indies two or three or even five eggs 

 are enclosed in each cell and that all but one of these must 

 perish. Mr. Benton said that with Melipona all of the eggs are laid 

 in cells, which are sealed before the larvae hatch, but in the hive- 

 bee the cells remain open even to the end of the feeding period and 

 the workers remove the superfluous eggs. Dr. Gill remarked upon 

 Mr. Benton's ability to recognize individual queens and asked 

 whether he could explain how he did it. Mr. Benton replied that 



