Parthenogenesis amongst Workers of Cape Honey-Bee. 403 



Owing to the straightforward nature of the foregoing 

 experiments and the absence of any conceivable source of 

 error, the writer has no hesitation in stating that Mr. 

 Onions has proved his case — namely, that the unfertilised 

 eggs of laying workers of the Cape variety of the honey-bee 

 produce mainly workers under the conditions obtaining 

 during the experiments, and that their eggs also develop 

 into queens as readily as the fertilised eggs of ordinary 

 queen bees. A few small drones are produced at times. 



Mr. Onions' discovery suggests further lines of investiga- 

 tion, and it is a source of regret to the writer that his official 

 position as a purely economic entomologist prevents his 

 following the matter further. The next important step 

 is to ascertain whether the Cape queens share the capa- 

 bilities of the workers in producing females from un- 

 fertilised eggs. It appears inconceivable that they should 

 fail to do so, but the fact has never, as far as is known, 

 been demonstrated. It is also to be noted that the Cape 

 bee, in spite of its peculiarities, crosses very readily with 

 such bees as Apis ligustica and the Khodesian race. The 

 parthenogenetic potentialities of the hybrid or mongrel 

 offspring would be an interesting subject for study, and 

 other lines of work are suggested. 



It is to be hoped, therefore, that others who have 

 the means and opportunity will be sufficiently interested 

 to experiment with this variety of bees, not only to 

 corroborate the results made public in this paper and in 

 Mr. Onions' previous publications, but also to follow the 

 matter up with a view to obtaining the utmost biological 

 value from the study of this marked divergence between 

 insects so closely related as the Cape honey-bee and other 

 domesticated varieties. 



Explanation of Plates CV, CVI. 



The plates represent both sides of two frames of brood comb 

 from one queenless hive, the brood present being all that of Cape 

 " laying worker " bees. It is to be noted that a number of bees 

 have already emerged and that a few days previous the capped 

 cells would have presented a still more uniform appearance. About 

 half a dozen Cape workers emerged during the few minutes occupied 

 in taking the photographs. 



