THE NATURAL 



dred males to one female. Copulation takes place in 

 the air; as is the case with ants, it is only possible after 

 a long flight has filled with air the pouches which cause 

 the male's organ to emerge. Between these pockets, or 

 aeriferous bladders shaped like perforated horns, emerges 

 the penis, a small white body, plump and bent back at 

 the point. In the vagina, which is round, wide and 

 shallow, the sperm-pouch opens; it is a reservoir which 

 can contain they say, a score of million of spermato- 

 zoides, destined to fecundate the eggs, during several 

 years in proportion as they are to be laid. The form of 

 the penis and the manner in which the sperm is coagu- 

 lated by a viscous liquid into a veritable spermatophore, 

 cause the death of the male. The copulation ended, he 

 wishes to disengage himself but only manages to do so in 

 leaving in the vagina not only the penis but all the organs 

 attached to it. He falls like an empty bag, while the 

 queen, returned to the hive, stops at the entrance, makes 

 her toilet, aided by the workers who crowd about her: 

 with her mandibles she gently removes the spine which 

 has remained in her belly, and deans the place with 

 lustral attention. Then she enters the second period of 

 her life: maternity. This penis which remains fast in 

 the vagina makes one think of the darts of fighters which 

 also remain in the wound; be it love or war the over- 

 courageous beastlet expires, worn out and mutilated; 

 there is in this a peculiar facility of dehiscence which 

 seems very rare. 



The wedding of the queen bee remained a long time 

 absolutely mysterious, and even today there are only a 

 very few observers who have been the distant witnesses 

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