IN THE HONEY-BEE. 77 



of the eggs of insects. Since Leuckart and Meissner* have 

 seen the spermatozoids penetrate the egg-shells through peculiar 

 openings into the interior of the eggs of insects, we must say 

 beforehand, that, if Dzierzon's theory proves to be correct, this 

 process can only be observed in those eggs of Bees which are 

 destined for the evolution of females or workers ; and that in the 



* I may be permitted, in reference to the discovery of this extremely import- 

 ant and interesting phenomenon in the history of the fecundation of the eggs 

 of animals, to mention the two names of Leuckart and Meissner; for according to 

 epistolary communications upon this discovery, which I have in my hands from 

 Meissner, I cannot but believe that both naturalists made their observations and 

 discoveries on the eggs of insects independently of each other, and perhaps 

 simultaneously. In a letter of the 8th of July 1854, which lies before me, 

 Meissner writes from Gottingen : — " I have continued my observations upon 

 fecundation, and indeed amongst insects. The result is briefly as follows : — 

 In Diptera, Lepidoptera and Coleoptera, all the eggs have a micropyle at a 

 definite spot, both in the chorion and vitelline membrane, and the spermatozoa 

 penetrate from the seminal receptacle into the micropyle during the passage 

 of the eggs through the vagina. In the Crustacea it is generally the same. 

 I am still constantly occupied with investigations. In Musca vomitoria I 

 found the still living spermatozoa in a mass, half in the yelk and half pro- 

 truding from the micropyle. I am already busy with the elaboration of what 

 I have found up to this time ; drawings are prepared, and in a few days I 

 think of sending you the memoir to which I have just referred in a supple- 

 ment to my last paper, and as a continuation of the latter." (See the Zeit- 

 schrift fur wissenschaftliche Zoologie, band vi. p. 263.) These observations 

 of Meissner's were printed in the 2nd heft of the Zeitschrift fur iviss. Zool. 

 band vi. p. 272 (published on the 14th of September 1854). On the 17th of 

 August 1854, at the Meeting of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, J. Muller 

 read an epistolary communication, of the 12th of August in the same vear, 

 from Professor Leuckart of Giessen, on the micropyle of the eggs of Insects 

 (Bericht der Akad. der Wiss. zu Berlin, 1854, p. 494). This Report is pub- 

 lished in separate monthly parts, of which the part for August had not vet 

 reached me, when, on the 12th of October 1854, after my return from a vaca- 

 tion-journey of two months to Munich, I wrote my letter to Herr von Ber- 

 lepsch. Consequently when in this letter (see Bienenzeitung, 1854, p. 230) 

 I only mentioned Meissner's observations upon the micropyle of the eggs of 

 Insects, I was still unacquainted with the investigations which Leuckart had 

 made, as he himself admits, almost simultaneously, in the same department of 

 entomology. After this explanation, I think Leuckart has no longer any 

 reason to reproach me with having ignored his investigations (see the Bienen- 

 zeitung, 1855, p. 129, and Leuckart's memoir Ueber die Mikrupy/e und den 

 feinern Ban der Schalenhaut hei den Insekteneiem, in Miiller's Archiv, 1855, 

 p. 245). 



