484 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



December 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



' =D Established by Samuel Wagner in 1861 



The oldest Bee Journal in the English language. 

 Published Monthly at Hamilton, Illinois. 



Entered as second-class matter at the Postoffice at Hamilton, Illinois. 



5UBSCRIPTL0N Rates— In the United States, THE STAFF 



Mexico and Canada. $1.60 per year; five ^ p q^jj^^^ Editor 



years, $6. Other foTeign countries, postage 



25 cents extra per year Frank C. Peli.ett Associate Editor 



^r^i^T"i:^:i:^in:X:i^"^J!''' Maur.ce G. Dapaw. Business Manager 



(Copyright 1921 by C. P. Dadant.) 



THE EDITORS' VIEWPOINTS 



Worker Mated With Drone 



With reference to the note on the 

 above subject in our October issue on 

 page 415, A.xel Hoist, of the Virgin 

 Islands, calls our attention to the fact 

 that Cheshire (Vol. 1, page 239) 

 mentions a similar case which was 

 scientifically substantiated. While it 

 is probably a rare occurrence this in- 

 dicates that it is not impossible. 



Beekeeping Damages From Germany 

 to Belgium and France 



We are officially informed, by Bel- 

 gian authorities, that they are at last 

 securing some bees from Germany, 

 to partly make up for the apiaries de- 

 vastated in the great war. 



Belgium will secure 3,375 colonies 

 in straw skeps, and France 20,000. 

 They are to weigh between 15 and 17 

 kilos (33 to 37 pounds). We under- 

 stand that the agreed value of these 

 is to be credited against the apnunt 

 of damages to be paid. Right! If 

 they could make Turkey pay the Ar- 

 menians in the same way! 



Fertilization in the Honeybee 



We acknowledge receipt of a copy 

 of No. 2, Volume 31, of the Journal 

 of Experimental Zoology, containing 

 a very exhaustive and scientific arti- 

 cle upon the above subject. Geo. H. 

 Bishop, of the Zoological Labora- 

 tories of the University of Wisconsin, 

 gives a wonderful description of the 

 reproductive organs of the queen and 

 drone, with anatomical cuts and 

 plates. 



It is out of the question for us to 

 do the subject full justice; we are 

 not sufficiently versed in microscopic 

 investigations to go deeply into this 

 matter; neither would the average 

 reader be interested in the details. 

 But there are a few points in this 

 study which we ought to mention. 



The study quotes 8 different au- 

 thorities on queen fertilization, none 

 farther back than 1882 (S. A. Shuck, 

 in American Bee Journal, 1882, page 

 789). Huber made numerous experi- 

 ments, from 1787 to 1812, upon the 

 mating of queens. He also quoted at 

 length some vei-y interesting experi- 

 ments and engravings from Reau- 

 mur (Quarto edition, 1740). As a 

 matter of course, neither of these ob- 

 servers had the modern facilities for 

 microscopic studies, and especially 



for magnified descriptions, yet it is 

 remarkable how closely they came to 

 the modern studies. 



Huber's "Nouvelles Observations," 

 the last edition of which was pub- 

 lished in Geneva in 1814, were trans- 

 lated into English but, strange to say, 

 some of the most interesting descrip- 

 tions of the study of fertilization 

 were entirely omitted in the English 

 translation. Huber's second letter to 

 Bonnet, mentioning a number of facts 

 on this question, and which contains 

 36 pages in the French edition, had 

 but 3 pages in the English edition of 

 1821. 



The present description of the or- 

 gans, in fertilization, mentions a 

 point in which Huber did not agree 

 with his renowned predecessor, Reau- 

 mur. Mr. Bishop tells us that, in 

 mating, the penis of the drone and Its 

 "bulb" are everted (turned inside 

 out) from the drone's body into the 

 vagina of the female; that "the penis 

 is gradually forced out from within, 

 as one might force out a glove finger 

 that had been turned inside out in 

 stripping it off, by blowing into the 

 wrist of the glove." 



Huber, on this same subject, quotes 

 Reamur as follows: "When we press 

 the belly of a drone gradually, with 

 care, we cause other parts also to be 

 ejected; these parts show themselves 

 on the opposite side from their posi- 

 tion in the body. The surface of 

 these parts, which was the inside, be- 

 comes the outside; the same thing 

 happens to them as to a stocking 

 which is drawn inside out. If the 

 opening of the stocking which we 

 turn inside out was fixed upon a hoop, 

 and if we began to evert it by be- 

 ginning at the part nearest the open- 

 ing, so that the heel and toe came 

 last, we would have, in this eversion 

 of the stocking, an exact illustration 

 of the manner in which the organs 

 of the male bee are turned to pro- 

 ject outside." 



Huber held that this eversion of 

 the organs of the male does not take 

 place to so great an extent, if at all, 

 when his oi'gans are exuded in nat- 

 ural circumstances, as when forced 

 out by pressure. He wrote: 



"When we examined the lentil" 

 (called by our modern observers the 

 bulb of the penis) "of which the 

 queen had rid herself, we saw clearly 



that it had not been everted, since 

 the side of it which we saw was the 

 same as what is seen within the body 

 of a male; we recognized this by the 

 position of the 4 scaly plates" (that 

 cover the lentil or bulb) "which ex- 

 hibited their convexity and which cov- 

 ered the lentil and its posterior end ; 

 had they been everted, the contrary 

 would have been the case." 



Thus Huber held that the organs 

 of the drone do not extrude in the 

 same manner, when they are nat- 

 urally thrust out in copulation, as 

 when they are forced out artificially 

 in the manner well-known to all bee- 

 keepers who have ever handled 

 drones. 



We see by several statements of 

 Mr. Bishop, that he is himself in 

 doubt as to the complete eversion of 

 the male organs, as described by 

 Reaumur. He also quotes Zander as 

 stating that the eversion of the male 

 organs "extends to the median bulb," 

 which is that part of the male organ 

 that Huber calls the "lentil." 



So we realize, once more, how 

 careful Huber's observations were. 

 He made hundreds of experiments 

 upon the fertilization of queens, and 

 his descriptions are not based upon 

 isolated facts, but upon a succession 

 of experiments in which he accepted 

 only those that reproduced them- 

 selves several times over. It is to he 

 regretted that his works were never 

 published entirely, in English. Our 

 editor, at the request of a number 

 of interested beekeepers, has under- 

 taken a literal translation of them 

 and hopes to be able to publish them 

 in a year or so. 



One important and very practical 

 fact which Mr. Bishop has elucidated 

 is the age at which drones are fit for 

 mating. It appears that they are not 

 fully mature until they are at least 

 5 days old, and are still better at the 

 age of 9 days. 



Our sincere compliments are e.x- 

 tended to Mr. Bishop for this contri- 

 bution to scientific knowledge on the 

 mating of bees. 



Do Bees Hear? 



Mr. Tichenor's article in this num- 

 ber on the above subject is exactly in 

 line with the arguments furnished by 

 Cheshire, author of "Bees & Beekeep- 

 ing." He wrote: 



"Should some alien being watch hu- 

 manity during a thunder storm, he 

 might decide that thunder was to us 

 inaudible. Clap might follow clap 

 without securing any external sign cf 

 recognition; yet let a little child with 

 tiny voice but shriek for help, and all 

 would at once bo awakened to activ- 

 ity. So with the bee: sounds appeal- 

 ing to its instincts meet with immedi- 

 ate response, while others evoke no 

 wasted emotion." 



Our scientists have been unable to 

 positively ascertain the location of 

 any ears in the bee. But we know that 

 their different sounds are recognized 

 promptly by them. Huber wrote some 

 very interesting statements on this 

 subject and we expect to give them to 

 our readers in the course of a few 

 months. 



