276 PHYSIOLOGY. 



classes of animals : their chief peculiarity consists 

 in their size, in proportion to that of the insect, 

 and in their being more under the belly than in 

 other insects of this tribe ; they are larger than 

 those of the humble-bee, and the two last scales 

 of the back and belly are larger than those of the 

 queen or workers. 



The female organs consist principally of the 

 ovaries, the oviducts, the sperm-reservoir, and 

 the ovipositor. In the ovaries the eggs are ge- 

 nerated, and remain till rendered fit by impreg- 

 nation, and the other circumstances necessary for 

 their maturation, to pass through the oviducts. 

 According to Mr. Hunter, what are called ovaries 

 are really ducts ; the eggs therefore are not form- 

 ed as in other animals, in a cluster on the back, 

 but in those ducts, of which there are six on each 

 side. When full of eggs, they form a kind of 

 quadrangle ; these six ducts uniting on each side 

 into one duct, this latter enters a, duct common 

 to both sides, which may be called the vagina or 

 ovipositor. The common oviduct is the canal 

 through which the eggs pass from the ovaries as 

 they are called, to the ovipositor. The sperm- 

 reservoir is the organ which, according to Herold, 

 receives the impregnating sperm of the drone, the 

 modus operandi of which we are unacquainted 

 with. In the hive-bee and in some other insects, 

 the influence of this sperm continues so long 



