398 Mr. Rupert W. Jack on 



reason that very few bees of the Cape variety are kept, 

 whilst the native honey-bee of Rhodesia (Apis mellifica 

 unicolor var. adansoni, B.R.) is easily distinguishable from 

 that of the Cape. On account of this, any possibility of 

 error through eggs having been stolen from other hives was 

 entirely removed. It may be mentioned that although 

 ; ' laying workers " are, under certain circumstances, 

 common enough in hives of the Rhodesian bee kept under 

 domestication, their eggs have not been observed to produce 

 anything but drones. 



The account of Mr. Onions' observations, published as 

 above, attracted but little attention, although a certain 

 amount of adverse criticism appeared from the pens of 

 one or two bee-keepers in the Union, and, anxious that his 

 discoveries should be brought to the notice of scientists 

 interested in parthenogenesis generally, the help of the 

 Division of Entomology at Salisbury was sought, with the 

 offer of experiments to be conducted under the supervision 

 of an officer of the division. 



Before proceeding to an account of these experiments 

 it is desirable to call attention to one anatomical peculiarity 

 in the Cape worker bee. In the typical Apis mellifica 

 the spermatheca in the workers is, of course, vestigial, 

 consisting merely of a slight projection from the common 

 oviduct. This is also the case in the Rhodesian variety. 

 In the Cape worker, however, the spermatheca is nearly 

 spherical in shape, an average specimen measuring *54 mm. 

 X '45 mm. The writer has dissected upwards of sixty 

 workers of this variety, and has found the spermatheca as 

 above in every case. This observation is also due to 

 Mr. Onions. 



The development of the spermatheca naturally suggested 

 the possibility of the Cape worker being adapted for 

 fertilisation by a drone, possibly the diminutive form 

 produced by fertile worker eggs — a condition of affairs 

 which, though remarkable enough in itself, would have 

 explained the production of female bees from worker eggs 

 without subverting the fundamental nature of accepted 

 principles in regard to parthenogenesis in bees. Careful 

 examination, however, shows the laying workers to contain 

 no spermatozoa, and the development of the sperm sac 

 must apparently be regarded as merely in some way 

 correlated to the reproductive potentialities of the insect, 

 the organ itself being functionless. 



