248 



AN ABNORMAL QUEEN BEE 



BY JAS. A. NELSON, PH. D. 



I send you by this mail a queen. Very strangely, 

 she Is half queen and half drone. I have never seen 

 such a queen, and I have never read of one. I will 

 also send you the cell in which she was hatched. 

 She was hatched in 18 days after the colony became 

 queenless; but I do not know the age of the queen 

 that produced her, at the time I tooic her from the 

 hive. I was sick last June, and my domestic took 

 away the frame to which the cell was attached. If 

 it had been myself I would have written. It was on 

 drone comb. I do not know what will be your ex- 

 planation of such a thing. I have never seen a 

 livelier queen. 



Rev. a. Fkancois, Dominica, B. W. I. 



The queen referred to in this letter was 

 sent to the Bureau of Entomology; and 

 when received she was alive, and appeared 

 to be in good condition. It was planned to 

 introduce her into a colony to test her fer- 

 tility, but she perished by an accident be- 

 fore this could be carried out A careful ex- 

 amination of the exterior of the dead queen 

 showed nothing abnormal or unusual in the 

 structure of the head, thorax, or appendages. 



Fig. 1.— a, B, and C, dorsal, lateral, and ventral views of abdomen of 

 abnormal queen; D, abdomen of normal queen, ventral view, 



Gleanings in Bet Culture 



The abdomen, however, was of a very un- 

 usual shape. Instead of the long tapering 

 conical form characteristic of the normal 

 queen (Fig. 1 D) , it was in this case broad- 

 ly ovate, as Figs. 1 A and C show. More- 

 over, the three last segments were bent 

 strongly downward so that the outline of 

 the abdomen suggests that of the drone, 

 having a blunt apex, and doubtless was the 

 cause of Father Francois' supposition that 

 this bee was hermaphroditic (having both 

 male and female reproductive organs) . A 

 more careful examination of the abdomen 

 disclosed further abnormalities. In corre- 

 lation with the unusual breadth of the ab- 

 domen, the sternites of the 5th and 6th seg- 

 ments are much broader than in the normal 

 queen (Fig. 1 C). They are, moreover, 

 somewhat asymmetrical, as is also the ster- 

 nite of the 4th segment, although to a slight- 

 er degree. Most modified of all is the ster- 

 nite of the 7th segment. In the normal 

 queen (Fig. 1 B) this has approximately 

 the outline of an isosceles triangle with a 

 small notch at its posterior end. In the ab- 

 normal queen (Fig. 1 C) 

 this plate is so much re- 

 reduced by shortening in 

 the longitudinal axis that 

 it is almost completely 

 covered and concealed by 

 the sternite of the 6th 

 segment. This reduction 

 of the 7th segment in part 

 accounts for the strong 

 downward bend of the 

 abdomen. In addition 

 the posterior notch is 

 very wide and deep, with 

 a semi- circular outline 

 extending over fully half 

 of the posterior border of 

 the segment. The sting 

 is also slightly abnormal, 

 having a kink about mid- 

 way of its length. 



An examination of the 

 internal organs showed 

 other and more funda- 

 mental peculiarities. The 

 poison - glands, poison- 

 sac, and spermatheca 

 (Fig. 2 A) in their size 

 and structure display no 

 apparent abnormalities. 

 The spermatheca was 

 empty, indicating that 

 the queen was a virgin. 

 The digestive tract also 

 seemed to be normal. 

 The sex organs, however, 

 were strikingly modified. 

 The left ovary (Figs. 2 B, 

 OvD) was present, but 

 flattened and bent into 

 an S-shaped curve. At- 

 tached to its upper end 

 was a conical opaque 

 whitish mass (Ov) 1.8 

 mm. in length apparent- 

 ly representing a single 

 egg-tube and seemingly 



