158 Miscellaneous. 



make concessions. The Academicians had great success in fixing th* 

 French language. Why should there not be a congress of malaco- 

 logical authors*, undertaken in a spirit of mutual respect, who 

 should fix such names to existing genera as in each case should prove 

 most useful because most widely or easily understood ? If travelling 

 is dear, postage is cheap. At present, to teach the science is almost 

 hopeless : to labour in it is fraught to each worker with the unneces- 

 sary sacrifice of most valuable time. All considerations of supposed 

 honour to individuals, whether dead or living (which often is equi- 

 valent to dishonour, because evidence of work done badly), ought to 

 give way to the manifest benefit, we might almost say necessity, of 

 using words to express a given meaning in science, as we do in com- 

 mon life. 



On Hermaphrodite Bees. By Professor von Siebold. 



An intelligent apiarian at Constance, M. Engster, was struck, four 

 years ago, by the abundant production of hermaphrodite bees in a 

 Dzierzon hive inhabited by Italian bees. Similar monstrosities have 

 already been occasionally mentioned. At the commencement of 

 this century a schoolmaster of thename of Lukas, described them under 

 the name of "Sting-drones" (Stacheldrohnen) ; but his discovery 

 was regarded as fabulous, and it is only of late that MM. Doenhoff 

 and Menzel have recognized some hermaphrodite bees. It is fortunate 

 that so competent an observer as Professor Siebold has been able to 

 investigate the abundant supply of these monstrosities furnished by 

 M. Engster' s hive, as Doenhoff ascribes perfect male generative organs 

 to the individuals dissected by him, whilst Menzel always found 

 those organs atrophied. 



Professor Siebold differs from both his predecessors, having found 

 among the hermaphrodite bees a mixture of sexual characters not 

 Only in those organs which are not directly connected with repro- 

 duction, but also in the generative apparatus itself. The mixture of 

 these characters varies greatly in different individuals. It is mani- 

 fested sometimes only in the anterior, sometimes only in the posterior 

 part of the body ; sometimes in all parts of the body, and sometimes 

 Only in a few organs. Some individuals present the characters of a 

 drone on the right side, and on the left those of a worker ; others 

 are drones in front, and workers behind. The intercalation of dif- 

 ferent sexual parts sometimes takes place very curiously. Lastly, in 

 some individuals the hermaphroditism is limited to the borrowing of 

 the characters of a single organ (jaws, eyes, antennae, or feet) from 

 the other sex. 



The internal organization presents anomalies of the same kind, 

 but the hermaphroditism of the generative organs is rarely related to 

 that of the external parts. The sting, with its vesicle and poison - 

 gland, IS well developed in the hermaphrodites with the abdomen of 

 the worker ; it is soft and deformed in those in which the abdomen 

 resembles that of the drone. The oviduct is often furnished with 



* This was proposed, for naturalists in general, by Dr. Stirapson : ride 

 • Silliman's Journal' for March 1860, pp. 289-293. 



