FERTILIZATION IN THE HONEY-BEE 279 
and in those sectioned, the histological appearance and the dis- 
posal in the female organs of the male sexual products. 
A (not over one-half hour mated). In this queen, on opening 
the abdomen, both oviducts and the anterior end of the vagina 
were widely distended with fluid, which appeared through the 
thin walls of the parts in this fresh specimen to be of the yellow 
color characteristic of sperm rather than white like mucus. On 
opening the oviducts under the microscope, clear active sperm 
flowed from the anterior end of each, followed by a mixture of 
sperm and mucus, which was not coagulated until it came into 
contact with the air. The vagina contained chiefly mucus. 
There were no sperms in the spermatheca. The drone’s penis 
attached in the bursa copulatrix had been fully everted, so that 
the end of the ejaculatory duct had been carried through the 
everted bulb and formed the end of the organ in its extruded 
condition (fig. 2, C). There was a little mucus in the end of 
the ejaculatory duct lying within the bulb of the penis. 
B (not over one-half hour mated). One oviduct of this queen 
was widely distended, the other slightly. Sections showed mucus 
and sperm both present. The sperms were scattering in the 
mucus, but by far the greater number of them were found to be 
in clumps or masses surrounded by mucus, and especially outside 
the-mucous mass altogether and next the oviduct wall. Here 
they clumped in masses so dense that a 10 uw section was almost 
impervious to light, because of the dark-staining heads. The 
filaments lay side by side in wavy bands perpendicular to the 
oviduct wall, in much the same way as the sperm are arranged 
in the seminal vesicle of the drone. In the anterior portion of 
the vagina where the oviducts enter it, and whence the duct 
leads off to the spermatheca, the sperms were very densely col- 
lected, especially on the dorsal side of the vagina. Masses of 
pure sperm without mucus occurred in the folds of the vaginal 
wall in the vicinity of the duct opening. The duct itself in 
cross-section showed sperm masses, but no mucus that could be 
distinguished. The spermatheca showed a faint sprinkling of 
sperms in a clear transparent non-staining medium—a medium 
which gave exactly the same appearance as the content of the 
spermatheca of the virgin queen. 
