78 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 15 



the best results. This would keep the bees 

 from all foul brood. When I say foul brood 

 I mean black brood and pickled brood. 

 Matanzas, Cuba. 



THE WINGS OF THE BEE. 



II.— Abnormalities in Venation. 



BY E. F. PHILLIPS, PH.D. 



In the first article under this title the 

 typical venation of the wing of the bee was 

 described, and the ways in which it differs 

 from the wings of a typical hymenopterous 

 insect werel pointed out. It is a common 

 saying, that;|no two living things are exact- 

 ly alike; and it is certainly true of bees, as 

 can be seen by a series of measurements of 

 any organ. In bees' wings we not only get 

 differences in relative size of parts, but we 

 frequently meet with cases of abnormal ve- 

 nation in which certain veins are lacking, or, 

 as is more frequently the case, in which ex- 

 tra veins are thrown in. 



If an animal were in all respects an aver- 

 age between its two parents, then all the 

 offspring of any two parents would be iden- 

 tical in every particular; but this, common 

 experience teaches us, is not true; for off- 

 spring vary all the way between the two pa- 

 rents, and frequently possess features seen 

 in neither parent. One of the questions 

 which have long troubled scientists is the 



which we found to occur in the wings exam- 

 ined, for such variations are particularly in- 

 teresting as showing the means of arriving 

 at the differences in venation which we find 

 in different species of insects. It is to these 

 abnormalities that I wish to call attention at 

 this time. 



The figure accompanying this article shows 

 (in dotted lines) where the abnormalities oc- 

 cur most frequently. The heavy lines indi- 

 cate the normal veins. It is very difficult to 

 record these irregularities in any kind of ta- 

 ble, since the irregular veins vary widely in 

 extent, and do not arise at exactly the same 

 place in many cases. An attempt was made 

 to classify these according to the veins from 

 which they branch, their extent, and direc- 

 tion. In this we recorded cases where a 

 vein bends {b in table) from its true course, 

 indicating but a tendency toward abnormali- 

 ty, as well as the well-marked cases. The 

 extent of the abnormality is expressed rough- 

 ly in the terms "very small" (vs)," small" 

 (s), "almost complete" (ac), and "com- 

 plete" (c). The letters used to designate 

 these abnormalities are in no way connected 

 with the naming of the normal veins, but 

 are chosen merely as a convenient means of 

 marking the irregularities. It will be un- 

 derstood that it is impossible to draw at all 

 times the same line between, for example, 

 the terms small and very small; and the ta- 

 ble given below is of value only as giving an 

 idea of the number of cases of abnormality. 



THE WING OF THE BEE. 



reason for this variation. According to the 

 theory of Darwin there iS a survival of the 

 fittest individuals, while the less fit perish; 

 and this could not be true unless there were 

 a difference in the fitness of the individuals; 

 in other words, this variation furnishes ma- 

 terial for the evolution to work on; and 

 without variation there could be no advance. 

 There has recently been considerable inter- 

 est in the study of variation, among stu- 

 dents of biology, to see and measure exactly 

 the amount of this deviation from the type 

 form in order to discover if possible the laws 

 of variation. As a contribution to this work 

 Dr. D. B. Casteel and I measured several 

 veins on one thousand wings of drones and 

 workers, and found that the drones showed 

 the greater variability (see Gleanings for 

 May 1, 1904). 



In connection with this work we also re- 

 corded all the cases of abnormal venation 



The letters in the table in itahcs refer to the 

 figure. 



500 drones. 



a, 82 b, 32 vs, 109 s, 1 ac, 2 irregular. 

 6, 7 s, 1 double s, 4 ac, 6 c. 



c, 3 vs, 18 s, 2 ac, 13 c, 2 irregular. 



d, 11 b, 27 s, 1 double s, 7 ac, 2 c. 



e, 9 s, 1 ac, 5 c. 



/, g, 8 irregular at anterior end. 

 h, 5 s, 2 c, 1 very irregular. 

 i, none. 

 Other irregularities, 14. 



500 WORKERS. 



a, 2 b. 



b, 2 b. 



c, 1 b, 3 vs, 9 s. 



d, 3 b, 6 vs, 9 s. 



e, 1 b, 1 vs, 3 s. 



/, g, 2 irregular at anterior end. 

 h, none. 



