Bramble-bees and Others 



anything about this delicate point, I shall owe 

 it to some happy chance for which I must 

 wait, or rather watch, patiently. 



Towards the end of my investigations, I 

 heard of a German theory which relates to 

 the Hive-bee and comes from Dzierzon, the 

 apiarist.^ If I understand it aright, accord- 

 ing to the very incomplete documents which 

 I have before me, the egg, as it issues from 

 the ovary, is said already to possess a sex, 

 which is always the same; it is originally 

 male; and it becomes female by fertilization. 

 The males are supposed to proceed from non- 

 fertilized eggs, the females from fertilized 

 eggs. The Queen-bee would thus lay female 

 eggs or male eggs according as she fertilized 

 them or not while they were passing into her 

 oviduct. 



Coming from Germany, this theory cannot 

 but inspire me with profound distrust. As it 

 has been given acceptance, with rash preci- 

 pitancy, in standard works, I will overcome my 

 reluctance to devoting my attention to Teu- 

 tonic ideas and will submit it not to the test 

 of argument, which can always be met by an 



ijohann Dzierzon, author of Theorie und Praxis dea 

 neuen Bienenfreundes. — Translator's Note. 



