STUDIES OF VARIATION IN INSECTS 213 



cal environment. The larva? pupate in the cells, and the im- 

 aginal bees issue with wings, legs and numerous other structures 

 wholly formed and in definitive character, and not correspond- 

 ing to any functional larval parts. The variations therefore in 

 the wings, — to select structures particularly available for quan- 

 titative comparison, and wholly foreign to the larval body as 

 functional parts, /. <?., parts capable of use or subject to dis- 

 use, — must be looked on as variations as strictly congenital 

 and independent of modifying extrinsic influence (/. ^., without 

 trace of modifications acquired during development due to vary- 

 ing environment) as it is possible to find among animals. The 

 wings, also, are structures possessed by all the three kinds of indi- 

 viduals composing the honey-bee species, and in all three kinds 

 function identically so that any variations the wings may exhibit 

 can not be attributed to differences in the special function of the 

 wings in the different kinds of individuals, but may be safely 

 associated with the other general features in the make-up of 

 each kind of individual, and be referred to as fair indicators of 

 the kind and extent of variation characteristic of the different 

 kinds of individuals. 



These variations, thanks to the uniquely favorable circum- 

 stances of the honey bee's domestic economy, may be studied 

 in series of individuals of adult age and experience, which 

 have been exposed (in their work of nectar, pollen and propolis 

 gathering, etc.) to the dangers of birds, lizards, predaceous in- 

 sects, storm and general stress of external physical conditions, 

 and in series of adults just issued or ready to issue from the 

 cells, and thus not yet exposed in any way in adult winged con- 

 dition to the selective struggle for existence. The variations 

 also may be compared in series of males (drones) and series of 

 females (workers),^ and also in series of parthenogenetically pro- 

 duced individuals (drones) and of individuals of bisexual parent- 



^ Workers should never be regarded as neuters, that is sexless individuals. 

 All workers possess, in rudimentary but not always functionless condition, ova- 

 ries composed of several egg-tubes, oviduct and rudimentary spermatheca ; so- 

 called fertile workers, /. e., workers capable of producing and laying (unferti- 

 lized) eggs are not infrequent. These eggs are of course unfertilized, these 

 fertile workers never mating. The eggs laid by fertile workers produce only 

 drones. 



