THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



sphincter and muscles, when the 

 repose condition would again be 

 established. 



A most remarkable adaptation 

 here arises. The spermatozoa 

 yielded by the drone are probably 

 about 4,000,000 in number; but 

 these need to be economically 

 utilized, as, if they were shot out 

 haphazard, they would be ex- 

 hausted long before the queen's 

 death, when she would breed of 

 course drones only (a circumstance 

 which does actually, although 

 somewhat exceptionally, arise when 

 queens run on without accident to 

 the ripe old age of four or five 

 years) ; but the duct through 

 which they pass, I find to be the cen- 

 tre of another gland, which seems 

 to the present to have entirely es- 

 caped attention. This gland is, 

 no doubt, excited to secretion by 

 the presence of the spermatozoa, 

 just as food excites our salivary 

 glands to the secretion of saliva, 

 and the stomach to the secretion 

 of gastric juice. Spermatozoa 

 thickly present will cause the ad- 

 dition of large quantities of fluid 

 which will dilute and more widely 

 separate them. Their absence 

 (for this gland is most richly pro- 

 vided with nerve-twigs, which send 

 numerous loops to the muscles 

 previously described and to the 

 ganglion seen lying under the 

 muscle) will yield the action 

 which will send a new contingent 

 forward as I have described, and 

 so the}" come to be paid out with 

 some regularity. The necessity 

 for this regularity will be better 

 appreciated if it be remarked that 



a prolific queen will lay 1,500,000 

 eggs, each about 1-8 mm. long, 

 0-4 mm. in diameter, and that 

 these would fill, if systematically 

 packed, a half-pint measure. De- 

 ducting a few thousand for drones, 

 the remainder would each require 

 an independent fertilization, and 

 for this work probably not more 

 than 4,000,000 and often very 

 many less spermatozoa will be at 

 command. We shall presently 

 see that the number of spermatozoa 

 and the size of the receptaculum 

 appear to be proportioned to the 

 laying capabilities of the insect, 

 and hence in every case some such 

 mechanism as we have been ex- 

 amining will be a necessity. In the 

 common wasp, for example, the fe- 

 cundity is much less than in the hive 

 bee, but the spermatheca is much 

 smaller, the capacity of that of the 

 latter insect being about forty times 

 that of the former, while the sper- 

 matozoa are nearly of the same size. 

 The channel is fairly wide, and 

 at first I supposed it tolerably 

 straight and simple, but upon ex- 

 amining it with the low-angled front 

 of a Powell oil 1^ in., I discovered 

 it to contain a membrane of ex- 

 treme tenuity and remarkably con- 

 voluted, reminding me much of the 

 curious structure of the epididj'uiis 

 of higher animals. The meaning 

 of this peculiarity I can in no way 

 explain. Tracing this channel on- 

 wards till it perforates the side of 

 the common oviduct, a bifurcation 

 is detected, one channel of which 

 appears wide and indefinite and to 

 be presently lost in the lower part 

 of the oviduct, whilst the other 



