1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1S8S 



microscopic-technical questions; but we hope 

 that acknowledged authoi-ities, such as the 

 renowned cell-investigators Professor Th. 

 Boveri and O. Hertwig, will not withold 

 their opinion. 



In the third part Dr. Kuckuck tries to 

 prove directly the "being impregnated" of 

 the drone eggs. Our layman's understand- 

 ing judges this part to be the weakest, the 

 conclusive force of the same being absolute- 

 ly null. Dr. KuckucK has only ascertained 

 that, in the state of progressed development 

 {Blasiidastadium) the nucleus of the cell of 

 the embryo of the bee, the queen-drone and 

 the drone are equal in size, consequently al- 

 so equal in number of chromosomen, and 

 that this, according to Professor Boveri's doc- 

 trine, furnishes the best proof for the equali- 

 ty and the being impregnated with sperm of 

 the three kinds of egffs. 



This singular assertion suppresses, how- 

 ever, that under " being impregnated " could 

 be understood either old impregnation (i. e., 

 parthenogenesis as hitherto conceived), or 

 new impregnation ( impregnation of the queen 

 by a drone, and, consequently, impregnation 

 of the eggs with sperm). 



By no means has this research ascertained 

 what really must be expected in case it should 

 be pi'oved that parthenogenesis does not ex- 

 ist; to wit, that the drone-eggs are without 

 exception new impregnated; that means with 

 the sperm from a drone-impregnated queen 

 or from a bee; because nobudy has ever seri- 

 ously claimed that every drone egg also con- 

 tains male substance from the grandfather 

 ( old impregnation), even if it were not known, 

 that the last remainder of it in the female 

 egg cell is either expelled in the second pole- 

 body or, when not expelled — can result in 

 parthenogenetic development of the egg, in 

 the original sense of the word. This is the 

 only news which we can find in this book; 

 but the news itself is only an heirloom from 

 Weissmann's germ-plasma theory, which, as 

 is well known, is not generally accepted. 



The forming of two pole- bodies by the 

 drone egg has not been personally observ- 

 ed or above all doubt ascertained by Dr. 

 Kuckuck himself, but he bases this assump- 

 tion on firm assertions by Dr. Petrunkewitsch, 

 whom he so thoroughly refuted, as well as 

 on assertions by Dr. F. Blochmann. But he 

 himself has pointed out how uncertain and 

 diflicult egg-researches are, and how easy 

 wrong-seeing, and, still easier, wrong con- 

 clusions occur.* 



Therefore, when Dr. Kuckuck, notwith- 

 standing the great uncertainty of such re- 

 search methods, from the equal size of the 

 cell-nucleus of the bees' blastoderm cells con- 

 cludes the reception of sperm by all, even 



*By the way, from the point of view of a practical 

 bee-observer we should like to propose the following- 

 question, which evidently did not occur to Dr. Kuc- 

 kuc for lack of knowledge of the bee-life but which 

 Dickel. the bee expert, could have considered very 

 well: Why is it that a drone-brooding bee-stock does 

 not resort to its last resource to change to a /lueen a 

 drone-egg which, according to Dr Kuckuck, is homo- 

 geneous to any bee-egg? Why do they perish, when 

 they can save themselves by the simple and certain 

 Kuckuck-Dickel' method? 



by bee-laid drone-eggs, this conclusion is 

 without force inasmuch as the proof is not 

 furnished how the sperm came in contact 

 with the drone-egg, which is maturing in 

 the bee. 



The discussion of this most important 

 question certainly should have been taken in 

 consideration; and since this has not been 

 done, really the entire demonstration lacks 

 proof; because, if the drone-egg expels only 

 one pole-body, the development can proceed 

 in exactly the same manner either through 

 old impregnation or through new impregna- 

 tion (page 31, sentence 10); in other words, 

 the result of this research is null. 



Every thing remains unchanged, and only 

 Dickel's own principle of the forming of the 

 sex, according to which the female egg should 

 be the bearer of male qualities, and the sperm 

 the bearer of fema'e qualities, has been thor- 

 oughly refuted by Dickel- Kuckuck. 



Finally, we want to emphasize that Dr. 

 Kuckuck finished thoroughly the doctrine of 

 the "arbitrary" sex determination, because, 

 according to him, the sex-tendency is influ- 

 enced through the greater or less electric 

 charge of the female or male nucleus-sub- 

 stance, and nobody can consider electricity 

 to be an intellectual power which arbitrarily 

 determines the sex of the bee-eggs according 

 to the needs of the stock. 



The electi'ic charge is probably only the 

 consequence of chemic-physiological causes; 

 and here we arrive at the much disputed, 

 because so little understood, question of the 

 food-juice doctrine. 



Who would have expected this? Every 

 thing brought forward, which shows conclu- 

 sive force, only confirms our own ideas re- 

 garding the organism of the bee; yet these 

 ideas, according to certain judgments, can 

 not be taken seriously. 



For this support we are obliged to Kuc- 

 kuck-Dickel. 



WINTERING. 



How do Bees Pass that State of Inactivity, 

 or Rest, during Winter, Described by 

 Dr. Dzierzon in Allgeni. Zeitiing fur 

 Bienenzucht ? 



BY F. GREINEK. 



Honey-bees, like other creatures, have their 

 time of activity and inactivity. They rest 

 when vegetation comes to a standstill, when 

 no more blossoms are found, the pollenizing 

 of which is their principal mission. A few 

 cleansing flights excepted, bees remain quiet, 

 although the weather may seem warm. 

 When cold weather comes they behave much 

 like other creatures. They pull in their ex- 

 tremities in order to expose as little of their 

 body as possible, so that Init little warmth 

 may be lost When it becomes extremely 

 cold, the bees not only occupy the spaces be- 

 tween the combs, but also fill up the cells, 

 which is so natural that hardly a word need 

 be said to aflirm this. It would not be a 

 compact cluster if only the half-inch spaces 



