THE NATURAL 



"Some years later the Rev. Millette, at Witemarsh, 

 observed the final phase of the act. During a hiving, 

 he noticed a flying queen, who an instant later, was 

 stopped by a male. After having flown about a rod they 

 fell to the ground hooked to each other. He approached 

 and captured them both, at the very moment when the 

 male had abandoned himself to the embrace; he carried 

 them to the house and let them loose in a closed room. 

 The queen, angry, flew toward the window; the male 

 after dragging himself for an instant across the open palm 

 of the observer's hand, fell to floor and died. Both 

 male and female had at the tip of the abdomen drops of 

 a milky white liquid; by squeezing the male, he saw 

 that the male had lost his genital organs." (Farmer and 

 Gardener, 1859.) 



"Having seen the queen go out, M. Carrey closed the 

 entrance of the hive. During his absence, which lasted 

 a quarter of an hour, three false-drones came to the en- 

 trance and finding it closed, continued flying. When the 

 queen on her return was only about three feet from the 

 hive, one of the drones flew very rapidly toward her, 

 throwing his legs around her body. They stopped, rest- 

 ing on a long grass-blade. Then an explosion was dis- 

 tinctly heard, and they separated. The drone fell to 

 the ground quite dead, with abdomen much contracted. 

 After a few circles in the air, the mother entered the 

 hive." (Copulation of the mother bee, in 1'Apiculteur, 

 6e annee, 1862.) 



Save the remark about the final explosion, these three 

 accounts accord well enough, and give an exact idea of 

 one of the couplings most difficult to get sight of. 

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