454 



2. On the Reproductive Economy of Moths and Bees; being 

 an Account of the Results of Von Siebold's Recent Re- 

 searches in Parthenogenesis. By Professor Goodsir. 



In a recent work, entitled "Wahre Parthenogenesis bei Schmetter- 

 lingen und Bienen" — Real Parthenogenesis in Butterflies and Bees, 

 Von Siebold, after reviewing the present condition of the subject, 

 distinguishes the so-called alternate generation from partheno- 

 genesis, and limits Professor Owen's terra to reproduction by un- 

 impregnated females. 



He has ascertained that this real parthenogenetic mode of re- 

 production occurs in certain moths — Solenohia lichenella and tri- 

 quetrella, the larvae of which are sac-bearers ; and in Psyche 

 helix, the larva of which constructs one of those remarkable spiral 

 sacs which have been mistaken for the shells of molluscs. 



It would appear that the apterous females of these moths re- 

 produce for many generations without the access of the male, and 

 that the progeny of these virgin females is female. 



Von Siebold's observations on the bee larvaa resulted in the 

 verification of the hypothesis recently propounded by Dzierzon, a 

 clergyman and distinguished bee-master in Southern Germany, 

 that all the eggs which come to maturity in both ovaries of the queen 

 bee are of one kind, which, if deposited without having come in con- 

 tact with spermatic fluid, are developed into drone or male bees ; 

 but if impregnated by spermatic contact, are developed into female, 

 — that is, into working or queen bees, according to their subsequent 

 treatment. The verification of this remarkable and important 

 physiological doctrine has apparently been effected by, 1, The ad- 

 mitted fact, that working bees occasionally deposit drone eggs ; 2, 

 By the determination of the voluntary muscular structure of the 

 spermatheca ; 3, By the detection of spermatozoa in the interior of 

 eggs recently deposited in working comb-cells, and the non-detec- 

 tion of spermatozoa in eggs deposited in drone comb-cells ; and, 

 4, By a careful analysis of the entire reproductive economy of the 

 bee. 



Von Siebold, therefore, considers himself entitled to conclude 

 that the females of certain lepidoptera, and the males of the bee, 

 are developed from unimpregnated ova. 



