CXXV 
Dr. E. Bessels has a memoir in the Zeits. f. W. Zool. for 1867, p. 545, 
on the development of the sexual organs in Lepidoptera. He does 
not appear to have seen my papers on the same subject in the 
‘ Philosophical Transactions. He mentions that a friend of his bred 
a specimen of Lasiocampa catax, which remained no less than seven 
years in the pupa state. 
Mr. Lowe, at one of our Meetings, read a paper on Dzierzon’s 
theory of the agamic character of the drone-producing eggs of the 
bee, and exhibited some drones produced by a Ligurian queen which 
had been impregnated by an ordinary drone. He argued that if im- 
pregnated eggs produced females only and the drones were always 
descended from unimpregnated eggs, then a queen thus impregnated 
ought to produce hybrid workers, but pure drones, while those which 
he exhibited certainly differed in many respects from pure Ligurian 
males. ‘This observation, however, is not so conclusive as it appears 
at first sight. The alteration of climate and of food might influence 
the colour of the drones, or it might be supposed that the queen, 
though apparently pure, contained some German blood, which thus 
showed itself. Moreover, we know cases, both in animals and plants, 
where the ovary is deeply affected by the influence of the male. And, 
lastly, it is stated that the pure Italian drones show considerable 
variability. 
The most probable explanation of the phenomenon, however, is 
I think, that these drones are the produce of the workers, which, being 
descended from a marriage of an Italian mother with a German father, 
would naturally produce a mixed offspring. 
Dr. H. Landois, in a short paper on the development of the sexes 
in insects, also combats the views of Dzierzon as to the partheno- 
genesis of bees. He maintains that the sex of the bee depends on 
the character not of the egg, but of the nourishment. In support of 
this he asserts that he has removed eggs from drone-cells and placed 
them in those of workers, and that invariably the grubs hatched from 
them have produced, not drones, but ordinary workers. He also refers 
to the well-known possibility of developing young worker-larvz into 
queens, which, however, I need hardly observe is not a case of change 
of sex; and also the difficulty presented by the cross between the 
common and the Italian bee. When, however, Dr. Landois observes 
that the females of insects require a longer time for their development 
