74 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



produced by her will partake of 

 the two races, exhibiting amongst 

 themselves those variations for 

 which hj'brids^ are remarkable ; 

 but her drones, on the contrary, 

 will be absolutely Italian ; again 

 showing that although their mother 

 was impregnated, her impregnation 

 had in no way influenced their gen- 

 eration, or that they as before 

 come from unfertilized eggs. Oc- 

 casionally in the absence of a 

 mother-bee one or more of the 

 workers^ (which from their ana- 

 tomical structures areincapable^of 

 coition) will commence ovipositing 

 and these eggs, from reasons now 

 clear, develop drones only. Be- 

 yond these facts and many similar 

 ones, it has been demonstrated that 

 the drone produces a vast number 

 of spermatozoa, and that the 

 queen after conjugation is found to 

 contain these stored in a receptacle 

 to which the names spermatheca 

 and receptacuhim seminis have 

 been given, and that these threads 

 are the active means for possibly 

 converting an egg that would oth- 

 erwise have yielded a drone into a 

 worker, or it may be a queen. But 

 many problems have had no an- 

 swer, and most conspicuously those 

 which asked how these threads were 



'The word hybrid is used here rather pop- 

 ularly than scientifically, and in obedience to 

 custom. No assertion that Jpismellifica and 

 Apis Ligustica are specifically distinct is con- 

 veyed. Tliey may be merely well-marked 

 varieties. 



«Such workers are known as fertile 

 workeis. They are abundant amongst hive 

 bees, but amongst some members of tlie 

 Apidae and Vespida) they pt-rform no unim- 

 portant part in the regular building up of the 

 colony. 



'One exceptional instance is declared, but 

 it must be received with reserve. 



transferred to the eggs, and how a 

 mother could after her impregnation 

 as needed supply eggs either fertil- 

 ized or unfertilized, and it is to these 

 especially that I invite attention. 



As, however, the investigation 

 shows beautifully that the queen 

 after mating becomes most com- 

 pletely a creature carrying all the 

 essentials of the two genders within 

 herself, it will be necessary to con- 

 sider the organization of the males. 



If the abdomen of a queen be 

 cut open down the sides by fine 

 scissors and the three first dorsal 

 plates carefully removed, we dis- 

 cover two very large organs filling 

 nearly the whole of the enclosed 

 space. These are the ovaries, and 

 consist of from 100 to 120 tubes^ 

 each, all lying side b}^ side and 

 gathered into a bundle by count- 

 less small tracheae which act as 

 connective tissue. These ovarian 

 tubes are at the upper end very 

 small, and here each egg is repre- 

 sented by an initial cell, but dur- 

 ing development it passes on, 

 room being made for it by the es- 

 cape of the mature eggs at the wi- 

 der lower end. Each tube merges 

 into the oviduct the commencement 

 of which is formed by the opened- 

 out walls of the peripheral ovarian 

 tubes. '^ The two ovaries are thus 

 covered below by very delicate but, 

 as will be presently seen, highly 

 organized membranous expansions 

 which may be compared to funnels, 



^In counting these tubes, it is needful to 

 thoroughly dissect, as the ovaries are not 

 equally active in every part, and some of the 

 tubes, thin and flat, may otherwise easily es- 

 cape detection. 



'The central tubes unite their lower edges 

 and complete the covering above. 



