248 THE WONDERS OF INSTINCT 



I have set forth. People unfamiliar with insect anatomy 

 — the public for whom I write — would probably give 

 the following explanation of this marvelous prerogative 

 of the Bee: the mother has at her disposal a certain 

 number of eggs, some of which are irrevocably female 

 and the others irrevocably male: she is able to pick out 

 of either group the one which she wants at the actual 

 moment ; and her choice is decided by the holding capac- 

 ity of the cell that has to be stocked. Everything would 

 then be limited to a judicious selection from the heap of 

 eggs. 



Should this idea occur to him, the reader must hasten 

 to reject it. Nothing could be more false, as the most 

 casual reference to anatomy will show. The female re- 

 productive apparatus of the Hymenoptera consists gener- 

 ally of six ovarian tubes, something like glove-fingers, 

 divided into bunches of three and ending in a common 

 canal, the oviduct, which carries the eggs outside. Each 

 of these glove-fingers is fairly wide at the base, but tapers 

 sharply towards the tip, which is closed. It contains, 

 arranged in a row, one after the other, like beads on a 

 string, a certain number of eggs, five or six for instance, 

 of which the lower ones are more or less developed, the 

 middle ones half-way towards maturity, and the upper 

 ones very rudimentary. Every stage of evolution is here 

 represented, distributed regularly from bottom to top. 

 from the verge of maturity to the vague outlines of the 

 embryo. The sheath clasps its string of ovules so closely 

 that any inversion of the order is impossible. Besides, 

 an inversion would result in a gross absurdity: the re- 



