REPORT OP THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 041 



gist, it is doubtfal whetbor a demonsteated method of Trliivt luaj br. 

 called parthenogenetical t'ecuadatioTi would possess the Qsaeiitiais of 

 cortaiutT and permanence in such a degree as to make the method serr- 

 iceable to bee-keepers. It remains to be trietl whether a suiiicient nn- - - 

 ber of active spermatozoa may be received into the spcrmathoca of que* n- 

 while in the larva, pupa, or imngo state to render them serviceable i '•■ 

 any practicable purpose, even if some of the reported successes were 

 true. Failing to succeed by these methods it appears more reasouabi? 

 that the best time to fecundate a queen is when she wants to be fecun- 

 dated, or when orgasm appears. Orgasm takes place in from five ^-i 

 seven days, usually in live days, after the queen leaves the cell, and 

 continues for eight or ten days, and a few instances are reported where 

 queens have been fertiblzed as late as twenty-three davs after leaving the 

 cell. 



When orgasm takes place the generative organs of the queen are 

 highly excited and much distended. We confined a que^nless colony 

 in their hive and gave them a quecn-ceU which had not been disturbed 

 while maturing, and allowed the «^ucen to hatch. When the virgin queen 

 was six days old orgasm occuned, and on the evening of the seventh 

 day we removed her from the hive and placed drops of the male sperm 

 upon the open vulva as she was held back downwards, by gently grasp- 

 ing the thorax bet'veen the thumb and forefinger. The ircstanr the male 

 sperm was pressed from the testes and seminal sack of a mature drone 

 upon the excited and distended vulva, it was curious to t>l -serve the ef- 

 fect. The action of the abdomen and vulva resembled that of young 

 birds while being fed. There was the reaching up after the seminal 

 fluid, and an action of the parts resembling the opening of the mouth 

 aud swallowing food. As much seminal fluid as could be obtained, by 

 the imperfect method employed, from three or four di'ones, was utibzed 

 and readily absorbed by the queen, after which her wing was clipped and 

 she was dropped on a frame covered with bees and returned to the hive, 

 and the bees were liberated. Up to this time her appearance and ac- 

 tion was that of a virgin queen. The next morning, twelve hours alter 

 exposure to the seminal fluid, her abdomen was distended, and her ap- 

 pearance and action in all respects was that common to fertile, laying 

 queens. She was moving about slowly over the combs and peering into 

 the cells, and in twenty-four hours afterward she had 400 or 5(X> eggs 

 in woiker cells. We watched the development of larvre fiom those 

 eggs. In due time worker larvno appeared, and at this date, Xo^-^m- 

 ber 13, worker bees in considerable numbers are being hatched. Wo 

 then reared two queens from the eggs laid by this arrificially fecundated 

 queen, in queenless colonies, and as soon as they were hatched I clipped 

 their wings, and when orgasm appeared they were treated as bofoiv tie- 

 Hcribed, and in three days one laid a few eggs in worker cells. The other 

 has the api'earance and action of a fertile queen, but has laid no eggs, 

 and the lateness of the season forbids advantageous continuance of iLe 

 experiments. 



Fully realizing the necessity for exactness and certainty in all do- 

 tails, before tabulating the results of any method so revolutionaiy. I 

 have endeavored to eliectually guard against all possibility of the tc^t 

 being abortive. Instances have been reported where fecundation had 

 taken place in the hive ; but as many examinations proved that there 

 were no drones in these hives, and judging fi:om the lateness of the sea- 

 son and severity of the weather, probably none in the country, except a 

 few which had been preserved in a queenless nucleus colony, by fre- 

 quently feeding the bees and confining them in the hive, and from the 



