PARTHENOGENESIS IN THE HONEY-BEE. 39 



acquainted, and by which all the phaenomena relating to the 

 process of reproduction in the Bees, which so often border upon 

 the marvellous, may be completely explained. 



One of these remarkable phaenomena is the property just 

 referred to possessed by some Worker-Bees of laying eggs capable 

 of development, a property which is denied by no observant Bee- 

 keeper, but could not hitherto be satisfactorily explained in any 

 way. The dissection of the Worker-Bees had shown, that they 

 possess undeveloped ovaries, that the seminal receptacle is only 

 imperfectly developed in them, and that, by reason of the abor- 

 tion of their copulative organs, they are by no means in a condi- 

 tion to copulate with a Drone (a male bee) and allow themselves to 

 be fertilized by him. But whence then should this reproductive 

 faculty of certain Worker-Bees arise ? At first I attempted to 

 bring this reproductive power into connexion with the Alterna- 

 tion of Generations, and expressed the supposition* that similar 

 circumstances might occur amongst the Bees as amongst the 

 Aphides, and that consequently amongst the Bees individuals 

 were produced at certain times, which, as nurse-like creatures, 

 could produce brood, without fertilization. But if nurses 

 really did occur in the Bee-colonies, these must have been 

 recognizable by careful dissection, as instead of ovaries they 

 would contain germ-stocks, and no trace of a seminal receptacle. 

 I at the same time expressed the wish that I might soon have 

 an opportunity given to me of submitting Bees, which had been 

 ascertained to be fertile workers, to a careful dissection and 

 microscopic examination, in order to decide whether or no they 

 really were nurses. 



But when I became acquainted with Dzierzon's theory of the 

 propagation of the Bees, and constantly grew more and more 

 convinced of its correctness, it was evident to me that we cannot 

 speak of a nurse-formation amongst the Bees. To inform my- 

 self as completely as possible about this theory, I went myself 

 to Carlsmarkt and held a conference with Dzierzon on the 26th 

 July 1851, in which I opposed all possible doubts to his theory 



* See my Bemerkungen uber die Lebensweise und den Haushalt der Bienen, 

 in the Jahresbericht der schlesischen Gesellschaft fur vaterldndische Cultur im 

 Jahre 1851, p. 48. 



