FERTILIZATION IN THE HONEY-BEE 25 
as will be shown in a subsequent paper, these secretions dispose 
themselves in the organs of the female at the time of copulation, 
and are disposed of by the female’s reproductive mechanism 
after copulation, in a manner not only entirely consistent with 
the interpretation given above, but in an order that seems to 
preclude any interpretation which deviates materially from one 
herein set forth (p. 248). 
SUMMARY 
1. The drone is not sexually mature at the time of emergence 
of the imago, but undergoes a further growth period of at least 
nine to twelve days. The progress of this development is 
described in this paper for the sexual organs. 
2. The sperm and the mucous of the accessory lanl change 
both in character and in behavior as the process of development 
goes on, as does also the mode of functioning of the organs which 
elaborate and contain them. 
3. Sperm and mucus each remain in their respective receptacles 
until copulation, and do not mingle before that time. 
4. The partition closing these organs off from the ejaculatory 
duct, consisting of the chitinous lining of the blind end of that 
duct, does not break through until copulation. Then the secre- 
tions burst through it as they are forced out of their receptacles 
by contraction of the muscular walls of these organs. 
5. The musculature of the whole base of the gland is so ar- 
ranged as to cause, on violent contraction, the shutting off of the 
distal portion of the gland from the proximal by a muscular 
valve. The mucous content is thus closed off from its outlet 
through the ejaculatory duct; at the same time sperm is allowed 
to pass through the vas deferens and basal portion of the gland 
into the ejaculatory duct. This spermatic fluid is thus the first 
to be ejaculated. 
6. The mucous content of the gland, upon relaxation of the 
muscles of the base of the gland, is then free to pass after the 
sperm, and forces all the sperm out of the organs. It also ap- 
parently forms a plug by coagulating on exposure to the air (e.g., 
when the penis is torn from the drone at the time of copulation). 
THE JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL ZOOLOGY, VOL. 31, No. 2 
