428 William Morton Wheeler 



of the ovarioles of a large number of Lepidoptera, which seem to 

 present the anomaly in question more frequently than other 

 insects, might reveal an occasional inclusion of two oocytes in the 

 same follicle or even various stages in their fusion. Or if hives 

 are ever again found like the famous Eugster hive, in .which so 

 many gynandromorphous bees were produced, the cytologist 

 will have an opportunity to test the hypothesis here advocated by 

 a careful examination of the ovarioles of the queen. 



But no matter what view we hold in regard to the origin of 

 gynandromorphs, we are compelled to admit that they demon- 

 strate the very early and rigid determination of the secondary 

 sexual characters, the possibihty of their complete development 

 even when the gonads of the corresponding sex are lacking and 

 their independence of internal secretions. To this extent they con- 

 firm the results obtained byOudemans, Kellogg, Meisenheimer 

 and Regen in their castration experiments. Indirectly they indi- 

 cate that the insect egg not only has its primary sexual 

 characters determined long before fertilization and independently 

 of the later nuclear or chromosomal phenomena, but that even 

 the secondary sexual characters are in some manner also prede- 

 termined at this early stage. Where great differences of stature 

 are secondary sexual characters, as in phylloxerans, some aphids 

 and rotifers, we find corresponding differences in the size of the 

 male and female oocytes. This is, of course, quite in harmony 

 with the remarkable predetermination of the embryonic regions 

 of the insect egg. Long ago Hallez ('86) and I ('89, '93) showed 

 that in many insect eggs the regions corresponding to the ventral 

 and dorsal, right and left, and cephalic and caudal portions of 

 the embryo are clearly established long before the maturation 

 divisions. 



The second class of cases, which indicate that the primary 

 and secondary sexual characters of insects may develop indepen- 

 dently of one another, are found among certain species of ants, 

 the males of which, though developing gonads and external geni- 

 talia of the usual type, have nevertheless become decidedly femi- 

 nine in their secondary sexual characters. That this condition is 

 an expression of degeneration seems to be indicated by the fact 



