OR, MANUAI, OF THE APIARY. 



61 



France, whose experiments and researches are of special in- 

 terest to the apiarists. Perhaps no entomologist has done 

 more to reveal the natural history of bees. Especially to be 

 commended are his method of experimenting, his patience in 

 investigation, the elegance and felicity of his word-pictures, 

 and, above all, his devotion to truth. We shall have occasion 

 to speak of this conscientious and indefatigable worker in the 

 great field of insect life frequently in the following pages. 

 Bonnet, of Geneva, the able correspondent of Reaumur, also 

 did valuable work, in which the lover of bees has a special 

 interest. Bonnet is specially noted for his discovery and 

 elucidation of parthenogenesis— that anomalous mode of repro- 

 duction—as it occurs among the Aphides or plant-lice, though 

 he did not discover that our bees, in the production of drones, 

 illustrate the same doctrine. Though the author of no system,' 

 he gave much aid to Reaumur in his systematic labor. 



At this same period systematic entomology received great 

 aid from Lyonnet's valuable work. This author dissected and 

 explained the development of a caterpillar. His descriptions 

 and illustrations are wonderful, and will proclaim his ability 

 as long as entomology is studied. 



We have next to speak of the great Dane, Fabricius— a 

 student of Ivinn aeus— who published his works from 1775 to 

 1798, and thus was revolutionizing systematic entomology at 

 the same time that we of America were revolutionizing gov- 

 ernment. He made the mouth organs the basis of his classifi- 

 cation, and thus followed in the path which DeGeer had marked 

 out ; though it was scarcely beaten by the latter, while Fabri- 

 cius left it wide and deep. His classes and orders are no im- 

 provement on— in fact, are not nearly as correct as— his old 

 master's. In his description of genera— where he pretended to 

 follow nature— he has rendered valuable service. In leading 

 scientists to study parts, before little regarded, and thus to 

 better establish affinities, he did a most valuable work. His 

 work is a standard, and should be thoroughly studied by all 

 entomologists. 



Just at the close of the last century appeared the "great- 

 est Roman of them all," the great Latreille, of France, whose 

 name we have so frequently used in the classification of the 



