IN THE HONEY-BEE. 53 



necessary fertilization of the eggs during oviposition with this 

 supply of male semen. 



As in the act of copulation of the Bees, the penis of a drone 

 is completely protruded outwards, and as no particular muscular 

 apparatus exists for the extrusion of the penis, the circumstance 

 that the drones only copulate in flight has an important signifi- 

 cation, to which Leuckart* has already called attention; during 

 the movement of the wings, the different air-sacs of the tracheal 

 system of the drone are filled with air, by which means these can 

 act by pressure in the interior of the body of the bee, upon the 

 neighbouring penis which is to be protruded. 



After this single fecundation, a queen- bee can for a long time 

 lay male or female eggs at will; for by the filling of her seminal 

 receptacle with male semen she has acquired the power of pro- 

 ducing female eggs, whilst before copulation and with an empty 

 seminal capsule, and therefore in the virgin state, she can only 

 lay male eggs. The second and most important point of the 

 new theory of the reproduction of Bees, is the proposition esta- 

 blished by Dzierzon, that, — All eggs which come to maturity in 

 the two ovaries of a queen-bee are only of one and the same kind, 

 which, when they are laid without coming in contact with the 

 male semen, become developed into male Bees, but, on the contrary, 

 when they are fertilized by male semen, produce female Bees. 



Dzierzon therefore asserts that every egg laid without fer- 

 tilization by a queen-bee produces a drone, and that every 

 fertilized egg laid by her produces a worker or a queen, according 

 as the larva excluded therefrom is nourished with worker-food or 

 royal- food. 



This proposition of Dzierzon's theory necessarily made the 

 greatest noise when it was first expressed, and requires above all 

 to be submitted to the closest examination. Before I undertake 

 this examination, I will only remark that one circumstance 

 speaks a priori in favour of this proposition of Dzierzon, 

 namely, that by adopting this proposition, every phenomenon, 

 however remarkable, in the sexual existence of the Bees may be 

 easily explained. But as a time-honoured physiological law is 

 at once abolished by this proposition, namely, that an egg which 

 is to be developed into a male or female individual must always be 



* See Bienenzeitung, 1855, p. 201. 



