FERTILIZATION IN THE HONEY-BEE 269 
picture of the mechanism by which the queen fertilizes the egg. 
The fact has been noted elsewhere, however,’ that this anatomical 
study of the queen’s organs does not elucidate by what manner 
the sperms get into the spermatheca of the queen after fertili- 
zation. There is no explanation recorded of the reception of the 
spermatic fluid into the female organs, except a remark by 
Shafer,‘ that the queen’s vagina, and ‘in one queen’ (of four 
available for study), the oviducts were distended with fluid after 
copulation. No other statement bearing directly on this subject 
has been found. 
ANATOMY OF THE FEMALE SEXUAL APPARATUS 
Before passing to the consideration of these fertilized queens, 
the configuration of the female genital tract merits consideration. 
In figure 1, A, is shown diagrammatically the dorsal aspect 
of the sexual organs of the virgin queen. ‘This is the view which 
shows most of the gross anatomy and the one conventionally 
presented. This aspect, however, demonstrates most inade- 
quately several structural details and relationships which are 
significant in fertilization. Figure 1, B, is a diagram of the 
sexual apparatus in profile, showing particularly the configuration 
of the lumen of the tract. This is partially figured (in the region 
of the ‘sperm pump’ leading to the spermatheca) in Bresslau’s 
work on the seminal receptacle and sperm pump! but the signifi- 
cance of the more general relationships is not there brought out. 
The queen and drone, in copulation, meet face to face while 
in rapid flight. The drone’s copulatory organ (fig. 2, A), by 
an explosive contraction of the abdominal muscles, is everted 
from the body of the drone (fig. 2, B or C) into the copulatory 
bursa of the queen, and there it lodges. The queen twists off 
the drone’s organ and returns to the hive with the end of it 
attached in the vagina. 
The complex morphology of the penis is usually interpreted 
as facilitating this penetration of the drone’s organ as it everts 
’ Snodgrass. Anatomy of the honey-bee. U.S. Dept. of Agr. Bur. Entomol. 
Tech., Series 18. 
‘Shafer. A study of the factors which govern mating in the honey-bee. 
Mich. Agr. Col. Exp. Sta. Tech., Bul. 34, 1917. 
