16 The Uabitu of llie Honeybee 



takes place at a lower point, and a few men have 

 recorded the fact of witnessing the completion of the 

 " marriage-flight." The queen, on leaving the hive, in 

 some way attracts a. great many drones to her from 

 all parts of the apiary, provided her hive is located in 

 a bee-yard, and the swiftest and strongest drone is 

 successful in the race. The other drones often follow 

 the queen back to her hive, and for an hour or two 

 often remain on the outside of the hive after she has 

 entered, but later they return to their own hives. 



The queen returns from the mating-flight in about 

 half an hour, carrying with her the generative organs 

 of the male which is killed during the union of the 

 two. Near the posterior end of the queen is a small 

 sac, which, before the flight, is filled with a clear 

 liquid; but after her return this sac is filled with an 

 opaque fluid; and it is the reception of this opaque 

 substance which is the essential thing in mating. This 

 liquid contains millions of spermatozoa, or male- sex 

 cells, each one of which is capable of fertilizing an egg 

 as it glides past the opening of the sac. This supply 

 of spermatozoa is almost always sufficient to supply 

 the eggs laid by a queen for three or four years, it 

 rarely happening that she mates the second time before 

 laying. There may be cases in which she mates after 

 once beginning to lay, but the evidence for such a 

 flight is very small. Since a queen can, during her 

 lifetime, lay a total of 500,000 eggs, most of which 

 receive one of these spermatozoa, it will be seen that 

 the apparatus for preserving them is very perfect, 

 since the queen cannot generate more, and they do 

 not divide or increase in number in any way. 



The mating of queen and drone never occurs in the 

 liive, but filways in the air, on the wing. This instinct 



