Permutations of Sex 



opposite argument, but to the unanswerable 

 test of facts. 



For this optional fertilization, determining 

 the sex, the mother's organism requires a 

 seminal reservoir which distils its drop of 

 sperm upon the egg contained In the oviduct 

 and thus gives it a feminine character, or else 

 leaves it its original character, the male cha- 

 racter, by refusing it that baptism. This re- 

 servoir exists in the Hive-bee. Do we find a 

 similar organ in the other Hymenoptera, 

 whether honey-gatherers or hunters? The 

 anatomical treatises are either silent on this 

 point or, without further enquiry, apply to 

 the order as a whole the data provided by 

 the Hive-bee, however much she differs from 

 the mass of Hymenoptera owing to her social 

 habits, her sterile workers and especially her 

 tremendous fertility, extending over so long a 

 period. 



I at first doubted the universal presence of 

 this spermatic receptacle, having failed to find 

 it under my scalpel In my former investiga- 

 tions into the anatomy of the Sphcx-wasps and 

 some other game-hunters. But this organ is 

 so delicate and so small that it very easily 

 escapes the eye, especially when our attention 



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