i6 



AUSTRALASIAN BEE MANUAL 



ovaries, and on the outside of the common oviduct, is a 

 small globular body, shown on the right hand side in 

 the engraving. This is a hollow^ vessel, called the 

 spermatheca, of which much has to be said. More 



Fig. 6. OVARIES OF QUEEN. 



than two hundred years ago Swammerdam published 

 an excellent illustration of the ovaries of a queen bee, 

 showing the spermatheca, but he conjectured that it 

 secreted a fluid for sticking the eggs to the bottom 

 of the cells in the comb. In his time but little was 

 known of what went on within the hive. It was no 

 doubt assumed by many that every single egg laid by 

 the queen required to be fertilised by a separate act 

 of the drone, while Swammerdam himself conceived 

 the idea that no copulation was necessary, but that 

 some gaseous emanations from the body of the drone 

 produced fecundation by penetrating the body of the 

 queen. About a hundred years later great advances 



