190 THE MINUTE ANATOMISTS 



become matter of common knowledge : — ** Whatever 

 size insects have attained when they undergo their 

 transformation, they retain ever after." He had closely 

 studied the change of skin in insects. The ne^v seg- 

 ments and appendages, he tells us, are at first soft and 

 wrinkled, but expand greatly as soon as they become 

 free, owing to distention by air or blood. He is well 

 aware of the close connection between instantaneous or 

 protracted egg-laying, and the shorter or longer duration 

 of the imaginal state. 



The life-history of the hive-bee is described with much 

 care. Swammerdam noted the changes of skin which 

 the larva undergoes, and the closeness of his observation 

 is shown by his statement that when the last larval 

 skin is cast the old tracheae are withdrawn from the 

 spiracles, and the chitinous lining from the alimentary 

 canal. 



Having worked out with incredible labour the struc- 

 ture of the reproductive organs of the queen and drone^ 

 and having convinced himself that the queen lays all 

 the eggs by which the hive is replenished (but see 

 p. 186), Swammerdam must have confidently expected 

 to get proof of the fertilisation of the queen by a drone. 

 But the difl&culties of observation happen to be unusually 

 great in the case of the hive-bee, and Swammerdam w^as 

 unluckily led astray by difficulties of his own contriving. 

 He never came to a knowledge of what actually occurs, 

 and put forth a delusive explanation which does him 

 little credit. To begin with, he could not understand 

 the action of the male parts, which seemed to him to 

 hinder effective copulation. He remarked too that the 

 queen is surrounded by workers, which do not permit 

 the access of drones ; even at swarming-times, when she 

 is allowed to leave the hive, she is closely guarded. 



I 



