Reproduction in the Honey Bee. 5d9 
microscope, to ascertain the presence or absence of the 
seminal filaments upon the micropylar apparatus of 
freshly-deposited drone-eges, and from this to draw a 
conclusion as to their. fecundation or non-fecundation. 
“Until” says Leuckart, ‘‘ either by experiment, or by 
direct observation, the strict proof is obtained, that it is 
only the eggs of the female bees that are impregnated, 
the question as to the causality of sex in the bees remains 
an open one.” 
This strict proof, according to Von Siebold, has been 
obtained by him. By a rigid course of experiments and 
observations he has discovered what Leuckart failed to 
accomplish. Thoughacknowledging with Leuckart, “‘ that 
the investigations of the egg of the bee are amongst the 
most difficult of all investigations of the kind,” yet he 
has been “able to furnish, by direct observations, that 
evidence which must have been required by science as 
alone sufficient for the establishment of Dzierzon’s 
theory.” He says: “Amongst the fifty-two female eggs 
examined by me with the greatest care and conscientious- 
ness, thirty-four furnished a positive result, that is to 
say, in thirty I could prove the existence of seminal 
filaments, in which movements could even be detected 
in three eggs.” Also: ‘ Amongst twenty-seven drone 
eggs examined with the same care, and by the same 
method,” he says, ‘‘ I did not find one seminal filament 
in any single egg either externally or internally.” 
Such are the results of scientific investigation. It is 
perhaps impertinent in me, therefore, to attempt to 
resuscitate a question which has been, as it were, thus 
fore-closed by science. But if my observations be 
correct, that the drones do partake of the paternal 
influence, how, I ask, are we to account for the contents 
of the spermatotheca affecting the male eggs in the 
ovaries, excluded as they are without bemg invested 
with the fecundating seminal filaments ? How are these 
apparently opposing facts to be reconciled ? 
To me it humbly appears the whole subject is full of 
difficulties. Repeated observations and experiments are 
no doubt still needed to elucidate the mysteries of 
reproduction in the bee. The anomalies found in Baron 
Von Berlepsch’s experience, and which he leaves unex- 
plained, would, according to my discovery, receive an 
easy and simple solution ; for, im all his proceedings, I, 
fear he was trusting implicitly to the purity of his 
BR 2 
