1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



395 



ory to get into our columns, for the simple 

 reason that it occupied an immense amount of 

 space in the European publications, with the 

 result that nothing was proved in favor of the 

 new hypothesis. But when I attended one of 

 the conventions in New York recently, I lis- 

 tened to an excellent paper on the subject by 

 Mr. Friedemann Greiner. As he had discuss- 

 ed the matter so thoroughly and impartially, 

 I requested the privilege of the publication of 

 his paper, which privilege he freely granted. 

 I have held the paper till now so it would be 

 more seasonable ; but in the mean time I have 

 received from Frank Benton a translation of 

 an article on the same subject. Both have 

 been held, and aie now given. — Ed.] 



ON THE THEORY OF PARTHENOGENESIS 

 AMONG BEES. 



BY CAV. ANDREA DE' RAUSCHENFELS. 



Translated from the Italian, by Frank Benton, U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 



[This article is translated from V Apicoltore, Vol. 

 XXXIV., No. 2, for February, 1901. Cavaliere Andrea 

 de' Rauschenfels, the learntd editor of this, the oldest 

 Italian bee-journal, is the author of several valuable 

 works on bee-keeping, and is one of the most eminent 

 practical bee-masters of Europe. Being of Germanic 

 descent he is thoroughly conversant with the language 

 in which the main discussion of the Dickel theory 

 was originally published. This short exposition by 

 him of the latest phase of the matter is, therefore, a 

 welcome contribution. — Translator's note.] 



Much water has rolled under the bridges 

 since the lamented Don Lanfranchi, and, lat- 

 er, Mr. F. Dickel, undertook to revise the 

 Dzierzonian theory of parthenogenesis among 

 bees. The innumerable experiments carried 

 out with admirable perseverance by the latter, 

 and the deductions from these, treated with 

 great acumen, and published in a very long 

 series of articles in the Noerdlivger Bienen- 

 zeitung, then edited by him, and, above all, 

 the eloquent exposition of the new theory 

 (according to which the workers are the ones 

 that determine the sex of the creatures devel- 

 oped from the eggs deposited by a fecundated 

 queen, and therefore themselves, without ex- 

 ception like the latter, fecundated), made a 

 great impression on the apiculturists present 

 at the congresses of Cologne and Salzburg ; 

 the adherents were numerous, and the applause 

 was entertaining 



Dr. Dzierzon and his followers combatted, 

 naturally, to a man, the reformer ; and the 

 strife between the Guelphs and Ghibellines 

 continued to rage more fiercely than ever in 

 the journals, when there was brought forward 

 by Dickel a formidable aid. His journal sud- 

 denly ceased publication, and with the jour- 

 nal this so vexata questio appeared to have 

 been buried. It appeared to be so, but was 

 not. Dickel continued his crusade in another 

 journal, but the matter had lost its interest for 

 apiculturists. This was not the case, however, 

 among scientists. The zoological department 

 of the University of Freiburg, in the Grand 

 Duchy of Baden, had, for fully three years, 

 been conducting investigations in regard to 

 parthenogenesis among bees. The material 



to be subjected to microscopic examination 

 was furnished by the said Mr. Dickel. Out of 

 29 worker eggs in the first stage, 23 were found 

 which contained traces of fecundation, while 

 94 drone eggs presented no such traces what- 

 ever ; and among 62 eggs taken from worker- 

 cells there was not found a single one which 

 did not contain such traces, while of 272 male 

 eggs one only showed a vestige.* 



' ' How certain the method of examination 

 practiced by the zoological department is," 

 writes Prof. A. Weismanu.t " may be inferred 

 from the following : Mr. Dickel, who is not a 

 microscopist, commenced during the time — 

 certainly not short — occupied in the investi- 

 gations, to doubt the full accuracy of the mi- 

 croscope in the solution of the questions con- 

 cerning fecundation, something for which we 

 did not reproach him, finding it, on the con- 

 trary, very natural. As he wished to put the 

 matter to a test he changed the labels on the 

 contents of two packages, the one with eggs 

 taken from drone-cells and the other with eggs 

 from worker-cells. This occurred when the 

 results previously obtained had already fully 

 convinced us that the eggs found in drone-cells 

 are not fecundated. Hence we were not a lit- 

 tle astonished upon finding in a new examina- 

 tion exactly the contrary ; each egg which 

 was supposed to have come from a drone-cell 

 appeared fecundated, whilst none of those 

 which, according to the label, must have been 

 taken from worker-cells, contained a sign of 

 fecundation. It was very natural to think at 

 once that there must have occurred a chance 

 error in labeling the contents of the two pack- 

 ages ; and to ascertain this, an assistant, 

 Mr. Petrunkevich, went to Darmstadt (Grand 

 Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt), to the residence 

 of Mr. Dickel, and ascertained that the ex- 

 change of the labels had actually been made, 

 and purposely. After all this," Professor 

 Weismann concludes, "it may be taken as prov- 

 ed that the eggs deposited in drone-cells are 

 normally not fecundated, while on the other 

 hand, those deposited in worker-cells are al- 

 ways fecundated and that, therefore, the theo- 

 ry of Dr. Dzierzon remains unchanged." 



But Mr. Dickel does not yet admit himself 

 vanquished. Fecundation, he says, does not 

 always depend upon the sperm, and he an- 

 nounces that, against the deductions of Pro- 

 fessor Weismann, he will oppose other deduc- 

 tions. 



Washington, D. C. 



[I think we may safely say that the experi- 

 ments conducted at the Zoological Department 

 at Freiburg dispose of the matter, so far as 

 the sex of the eggs is concerned, and it would 

 seem as if the result of these microscopic find- 

 ings, confirming as they do the findings of 



♦Although laid in a drone-cell this particular egg 

 would probably have developed into a worker bee. — 

 Translator. 



t Prof. August Weismann, the regular professor of 

 zoology in the ancient University of Freiburg, is a 

 celebrated evolutionist, embryologist, and compara- 

 tive morphologist, whose researches and theories re- 

 garding the problem of reproduction, development, 

 and evolution, place him among the foremost biolo- 

 gists of the age. — Translator. 



