INTERNAL ANATOMY OF INSECTS. 167 



have the faculty of giving birth to young ones without 

 having had any intercourse with the other sex. How 

 are we to explain this most extraordinary fact ? Are 

 we to suppose with Bonnet that these insects are truly 

 androgynous, as strictly uniting both sexes in one ? This 

 supposition, however, is completely overturned by the 

 circumstance, that there are actually male as well as 

 female Aphides, and that these, as was first observed 

 by Lyonet, are united towards the close of the summer 

 in the usual manner a . The most likely supposition 

 therefore is, that one conjunction of the sexes suffices 

 for the impregnation of all the females that in a succes- 

 sion of generations spring from that union. It is true 

 that at the first view this supposition appears incredible, 

 contradicting the general laws and course of nature in 

 the production of animals. But the case of the hive-bee, 

 stated above, in which a single intercourse with the 

 male fertilizes all the eggs that are laid for the space of 

 two years, and in the case of a common spider men- 

 tioned by Audebert b , for many years, shows that the 

 sperm preserves its vivifying powers unimpaired for a 

 long period, indeed a longer period than is requisite for 

 the impregnation of all the broods that a female Aphis 

 can produce ; and if immediate contact with the fluid be 

 not necessary, who can say that this is impossible ? It 

 is, however, one of those mysteries of the CREATOR that 

 human intellect cannot fully penetrate. But this anomaly 

 in nature is not wholly confined to the Aphides ; since 

 Jurine has ascertained that the same thing takes place 

 with Daphnia pennata Mull (Monoculus Pulex L.), one 



a Reaum. vi. 552. b .V. Diet, d'Hist. Nat. ii. 284. 



