158 Miscellaneous. 
make concessions. The Academicians had great success in fixing the 
French language. Why should there not be a congress of malaco- 
logical authors*, undertaken in a spirit of mutual respect, who 
should fix such names to existing genera as in each case should prove 
most useful because most widely or easily understood? If travelling 
is dear, postage is cheap. At present, to teach the science is almost 
hopeless : to labour in it is fraught to each worker with the unneces- 
sary sacrifice of most valuable time. All considerations of supposed 
honour to individuals, whether dead or living (which often is equi- 
valent to dishonour, because evidence of work done badly), ought to 
give way to the manifest benefit, we might almost say necessity, of 
using words to express a given meaning mm science, as we do in com- 
mon life. 
On Hermaphrodite Bees. By Professor von StrBoLD. 
An intelligent apiarian at Constance, M. Engster, was struck, four 
years ago, by the abundant production of hermaphrodite bees in a 
Dzierzon hive inhabited by Italian bees. Similar monstrosities have 
already been occasionally mentioned. At the commencement of 
this century aschoolmaster of thename of Lukas, described them under 
the name of “ Sting-drones”’ (Stacheldrohnen) ; but his discovery 
was regarded as fabulous, and it is only of late that MM. Deenhoff 
and Menzel have recognized some hermaphrodite bees. It is fortunate 
that so competent an observer as Professor Siebold has been able to 
investigate the abundant supply of these monstrosities furnished by 
M. Engster’s hive, as Deenhoff ascribes perfect male generative organs 
to the individuals dissected by him, whilst Menzel always found 
those organs atrophied. 
Professor Siebold differs from both his predecessors, having found 
among the hermaphrodite bees a mixture of sexual characters not 
only in those organs which are not directly connected with repro- 
duction, but also in the generative apparatus itself. The mixture of 
these characters varies greatly in different individuals. It is mani- 
fested sometimes only in the anterior, sometimes only in the posterior 
part of the body ; sometimes in all parts of the body, and sometimes 
only in a few organs. Some individuals present the characters of a 
drone on the right side, and on the left those of a worker; others 
are drones in front, and workers behind. The intercalation of dif- 
ferent sexual parts sometimes takes place very curiously. Lastly, in 
some individuals the hermaphroditism is limited to the borrowing of 
the characters of a single organ (jaws, eyes, antennee, or feet) from 
the other sex. 
The internal organization presents anomalies of the same kind, 
but the hermaphroditism of the generative organs is rarely related to 
that of the external parts. The sting, with its vesicle and poison- 
gland, is well developed in the hermaphrodites with the abdomen of 
the worker ; it is soft and deformed in those in which the abdomen 
resembles that of the drone. The oviduct is often furnished with 
* This was proposed, for naturalists in general, by Dr. Stimpson : vide 
*Silliman’s Journal’ for March 1860, pp. 289-293. 
