The Reproductive Processes and Parthenogenesis 183 



tozoa are forced on to the vagina. Cheshire 1 described 

 this apparatus incorrectly by assuming that the muscles 

 around the duct are sphincter muscles to hold back motile 

 spermatozoa. The spermatozoa, according to Breslau, are 

 not motile and no retaining muscle is needed. In copu- 

 lation the spermatozoa are deposited by the drone in the 

 vagina and must find their way to the spermatheca by 

 this same duct. There is no special receiving duct as 

 described by Cheshire. The spermatheca is not composed 

 of muscle layers, as formerly supposed. 



Cheshire estimates that a normal vigorous queen may 

 during her lifetime lay 1,500,000 eggs. Since mating occurs 

 usually but once, those eggs which are fertilized must re- 

 ceive spermatozoa from the supply stored up in the sperma- 

 theca at the time of mating. Since at each expulsion of 

 spermatozoa a considerable number pass out and all but one 

 are wasted, it is necessary that an enormous number be 

 stored originally. Cheshire estimates the number at 4,000,- 

 000 but it is enough to know that millions are then stored. 

 The marvelous feature of the phenomenon is that these 

 minute cells are able to live for perhaps five years away from 

 the animal in which they were formed (the drone) and at 

 the same time are so highly specialized that they can take 

 no nourishment. There is no multiplication of spermatozoa 

 in the queen as has been hypothecated by various beekeepers. 



The formation of the eggs has been studied by Paulcke. 2 

 In the early stages of the formation of the egg at the anterior 

 end of the ovarian tubes, the future egg nucleus is surrounded 

 by other nuclei which later form nurse cells. There is at 

 first no visible differentiation, no cell boundaries being seen, 

 but farther down the tube the nuclei are surrounded by cell 

 walls. Gradually the future egg cells begin to enlarge and 



1 Cheshire, F. R., 1885. The apparatus for differentiating the sexes in 

 bees and wasps. Jr. roy. micr. soc., ser. 2, V, pp. 1-15. 



'Paulcke, W., 1900. Ueber die Differenzirung der Zellelemente im 

 Ovarium der Bienenkonigin (Apis mellificd). Zool. Jahrb. Anat. u. Ontog., 

 XIV, pp. 177-202. 



