Bibliographical Notices. 49 



siders the case " not proven," although without giving any reasons 

 whatever for such an opinion, and indeed leaving some of the most 

 important elements in the argument out of the question altogether. 



One of these important points consists in the occurrence of Par- 

 thenogenesis, in Siebold's sense, amongst the Lepidoptera, not only 

 as an exceptional case in the Silk-worm moth, but also regularly in 

 some small moths belonging to the genera Psyche and Solenobia, in 

 which the larva lives in a case or sac, and the female is quite desti- 

 tute of wings. It will be unnecessary to enter at length into the 

 history of these moths — suffice it to say that they have been 

 bred year after year without a single male making its appearance, 

 although large numbers of individuals were repeatedly reared. The 

 females in both these genera, although very imperfect in external 

 appearance, possess regularly-developed sexual organs ; those of 

 Psyche fill their pupa- case with eggs before quitting the sac which 

 served as their habitation in the larva state, whilst those of Solenobia 

 emerge from their cases, and, clinging to the outside, stuff the in- 

 terior with eggs. 



Very wisely has the author placed this incontestable case of the 

 regular occurrence of Parthenogenesis as the introduction to that 

 which is undoubtedly the great object of his publication, namely the 

 establishment of a theory to account for the phsenomena of sex in 

 the bee-hive, which will of course be applicable to the other social 

 Hymenoptera. The theory here put forward does not, however, 

 originate with Von Siebold, but with a Silesian clergyman named 

 Dzierzon, who also appears to have rendered great service to the 

 apiarians by the invention of a new form of hive with sliding supports 

 for the combs, a description of which will be found in the work now 

 under consideration. According to this theory of Dzierzon, which 

 has been further elaborated by Von Siebold, and most enthusiastically 

 supported by a great bee-keeper, the Baron von Berlepsch, the 

 queen-bee, which, like all other female insects, receives the seminal 

 fluid of the male in a peculiar receptacle, there to be retained until it 

 comes in contact with the egg during its passage through the oviduct, 

 possesses the power of permitting or preventing this contact, so that the 

 eggs may be deposited in the cells, either fecundated or unfecundated, 

 at the pleasure of the mother. The theory goes on to say, that from 

 the fecundated eggs female larvae are produced, which become de- 

 veloped either into queens or workers, whilst the unfecundated eggs 

 furnish the larvae of the drones or males. The queen is supposed 

 to be incited to the fecundation or non-fecundation of the eggs by 

 the size of the cells in which she is about to deposit them,' the worker 

 cells being considerably smaller than those destined to be the cradles 

 of drones, whilst the nature of the royal cells is so peculiar, that we 

 may easily believe it to have some influence on the egg-laying female. 



Without dwelling upon the many interesting facts in bee-life which 

 are treated of in the pages of this important work, we may briefly 

 refer to a few of the principal points of evidence adduced in support 

 of this remarkable theory. It is now generally admitted, even by 

 bee-keepers, that the queen only copulates once, and that the supply 



Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xx. 4 



