80 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



the scope of this paper, that Sie- 

 bold^^ has possibly been in error in 

 imagining that he has noticed more 

 than one spermatozoon within an 

 egg. The great length of the 

 bod3', about 250 ,a, necessitates 

 man}' convolutions and would make 

 misconception easy '^^) . The head 

 of the spermatozoon is very nar- 

 row in order that the micropylar 

 aperture may be passed, but to ef- 

 fect this time must be occupied, 

 and how is this given ? It is clear 

 from what I have already said that 

 the spermatozoa pass not into a 

 plain tubular cavity to meet the 

 descending egg, but into a pouch 

 which I find to be elastic and curi- 

 ously formed of folds of the lining 

 membrane of the common oviduct, 

 and which takes up picric acid from 

 picro-carmine far more freely than 

 the oviduct proper, whilst its sur- 

 face is dotted over with linear 

 patches of setse from two to six in 

 a patch and from 1 to 3 /x in length. 

 Its structure is particularly difficult 

 to examine, and I should require 

 to carefully dissect many more ex- 

 amples of it before I would commit 

 myself to a drawing, but I am 

 satisfied that into or against this 

 pouchi''' ii^Q eggs that are to form 

 workers are conveyed, and that 



J5 siebold "On True Parthenogenesis," p. 85 

 et seq. 



16 1 have not failed to note that possibly the 

 body of the spermatozoon is very elastic, 

 measuring much less in the coiled than in the 

 straight form. 



" Is not the pouch described by Mr. Lowne 

 as the bursa copulatrix of the blow-fly the 

 same in use as the form now engaging our 

 atte ition ? The bursa copulatrix of tlie bee 

 is lower down. It is wortli noting here tliat 

 thediameterof the pouch is aboutCO/j. greater 

 than that of the egg. 



here the}'^ are brought into contact 

 with the spermatozoa and fertiliza- 

 tion is accomplished, while drones 

 are evolved from eggs which are 

 carried down by the side of the 

 pouch to the ovipositor and so es- 

 cape all contact with the fertilizing 

 fluid. The oviducts are very high- 

 ly organized, containing a most 

 beautiful system of longitudinal 

 and transverse muscular fibres re- 

 pletely provided with nerve-twigs, 

 evidently giving to the oviducts 

 the most complete control of the 

 eggs which are to pass through 

 them, while, as just hinted, they 

 are not without strong indications 

 of two specialized but confluent 

 paths one towards the fertilizing 

 pouch, and the other to its side. 

 Near the junction of the oviducts 

 also there are two thin muscles for 

 which I can conceive of no pur- 

 pose, unless it be to so reduce hy 

 their contraction the opening lying 

 b}' the side of the fertilizing pouch 

 that an egg could not, except it be 

 relaxed, pass in this direction and 

 so escape fertilization. i^ 



The nerve structure of these 

 parts would lead me quite beyond 

 the intended scope of this paper, 

 but it should be stated that the last 

 large abdominal ganglion lies im- 

 mediately beneath and in contact 

 with the oviducts and from it 

 branches of nerves run in abun- 

 dance into the oviducts, the sper- 



is The complicated structure which Mr. 

 Lowne gives to corresponding parts in blow- 

 flies and their general simdarity to those I 

 find in bees, leadnie to ask, whether it is not 

 at least possible, if indeed not highly prob- 

 able, from what we know of members of other 

 orders, that one of the sexes in the blow-fly 

 may be parthenogetically produced ? 



