Parthenogenesis amongst Workers of Cape Honey-Bee. 399 



The first experiment was commenced on December 24th, 

 1913, when Mr. Onions brought a bar-frame hive to the 

 Experiment Station at Salisbury. This hive contained 

 a strong nucleus of bees, one pure Cape and some crossed 

 Rhodesian-Italian, introduced the day before, with seven 

 frames of cOmb containing some honey and a very few eggs 

 laid since the enclosure of the bees. All the comb was 

 stated to have been taken from store and introduced into 

 the hive the previous day. There was no queen present 

 in the hive and no brood. The whole hive and colony was 

 subjected to a searching inspection by the writer. On 

 the 27th the hive was opened and thoroughly inspected 

 again. More eggs had been deposited since the 24th, many 

 being in the drone cells bordering certain of the frames. 

 The writer again satisfied himself that no queen was present. 

 The egg-laying appeared to be more systematic than is 

 usually the case with the laying workers of European 

 honey-bees, but more than one egg was frequently present 

 in a cell, and on the whole the work might be described as 

 intermediate between that of a normal queen and normal 

 laying workers (see Plates CV, CVI). In two old queen 

 cells a number of eggs were deposited. 



On the 29th a considerable number of eggs had been 

 laid in the two frames, and in one a number of young 

 larvae were present, sometimes two in a cell. Some 

 enlarged cells contained up to a dozen eggs, and the queen 

 cells contained a great number which showed no sign of 

 hatching. On January 3rd egg-laying was still confined 

 to the two frames, and a number of the cells were now 

 capped. Both old queen cells contained wnhatched eggs. 



Observations were continued until January 27th, by 

 which time a number of young had emerged, all of which 

 were of the black Cape variety and workers. Workers 

 apparently emerged from the eggs laid in the drone cells, 

 as no drones were present in the hive. On the 27th a 

 frame of brood from the hive was taken into the laboratory 

 and a number of workers were seen to emerge. All these 

 were Cape bees. A few of the cells were now found to be 

 capped in the well-known manner of worker cells destined 

 to produce drones. These cells subsequently emitted 

 small drones. The hive was next opened on February 5th, 

 and the drone cappings were by this time more numerous, 

 and a few small drones were present in the hive. Cape 

 workers continued to emerge, however. This hive was 



