( 396 



XXI. Parthenogenesis amongst the Workers of the Cape 

 Honey-Bee : Mr. G. W. Onions' Experiments. By 

 Rupert W. Jack, F.E.S., Govt. Entomologist, 

 S. Rhodesia. 



[Read October 7th, 1914.] 



Plates CV, CVI. 



For some years past Mr. G. W. Onions, until recently a 

 resident in the Cape Peninsula, has been engaged in follow- 

 ing up a line of research, suggested by observations tending 

 to show that the variety of the honey-bee mainly kept 

 at the Cape exhibits a remarkable divergence from the 

 European varieties, in that a far greater portion of the 

 workers are apt to develope the habit of laying eggs, and 

 that these eggs may produce either workers, queens or 

 drones, but do, as a matter of fact, mainly produce workers. 



As is well known, Dzierzon, Von Siebold and others held, 

 and their views .have been generally accepted, that the 

 eggs of the " laying workers " and unfertilised queens of 

 the honey-bee invariably produce drones, and founded on 

 these and other observations we have the " Dzierzon 

 theory " to the effect that the ova of the honey-bee are 

 predominantly male whilst unfertilised, but that the 

 female elements invariably predominate after the union 

 of the ovum and spermatozoon. The production of a 

 certain proportion of males by a fertilised queen was 

 accounted for by supposing that the queen could control 

 the egress of spermatozoa from the spermatheca when 

 impelled by instinct to add a certain number of drones to 

 the colony. 



Of the merits or demerits of Dzierzon's explanation the 

 writer is not qualified to judge, but the following para- 

 graph is to be found on page 499 of the volume entitled 

 " Peripatus, Myriapods, and Insects, Pt. I," by Sedgwick, 

 Sinclair and Sharp, Cambridge Natural History : " The 

 facts we have stated as to the sexes resulting from par- 

 thenogenetic reproduction in Hymenoptera generally, are 

 extremely opposed to the Dzierzon theory, in so far as this 

 relates to the production of sex. There have always been 

 entomologists who have considered this view unsatis- 



TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1916. — PARTS III, IV. (APRIL '17) 



