HISTORY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 25 



adds, " we had soon to deplore her loss." The 

 research was first made to ascertain whether black 

 bees, which, when they appear in a hive, are much 

 persecuted, were exposed to this persecution in 

 consequence of their sex exciting the jealousy of 

 the queen. The success of the investigation in- 

 duced this accomplished young lady to extend her 

 dissection to the common workers, which was 

 crowned with a result equally gratifying. Parallel 

 instances have been observed with regard to the 

 humble-bee, the wasp and the ant, amongst which, 

 those that have usually been called neuters are 

 found to be females, and when fertile, they, like 

 the fertile workers in a bee-hive, produce males 

 universally. 



Having now traced these insects through their 

 regular stages of egg, larva, nymph, until they 

 become perfect bees, and having noticed the facts 

 which show the working bees to be females, I 

 shall advert to the more intricate and mysterious 

 business of Impregnation. This is a subject which 

 was long involved in obscurity, and which indeed 

 is still clouded by some uncertainty. Schirach 

 and Bonner stoutly denied the necessity of sexual 

 intercourse between the queen and the drones, 

 considering the former as a mother and yet a 

 virgin, and Swammerdam was of the same opinion ; 

 he ascribes impregnation to a vivifying seminal 

 aura, which is exhaled from the drones and pene- 

 c 



