62 SEX-LORE 



thenos, a virgin); it exists among lower animals, such 

 as plant-lice, bees, etc. With regard to the bee, it 

 is interesting to note that there exist three sexes: 

 male, female, and neuter. The female is the normal 

 fertile individual, and is called the queen, because 

 there is only one to each hive, the other queens that 

 are hatched being killed by her. The queen produces 

 fertile eggs; she is fertilized only once in her life, 

 during her nuptial flight, when the males, or drones, 

 swarm out with her. Only one drone attains the end 

 of mating with her, and dies in that act. On the 

 return to the hive, all the other drones are killed and 

 thrown out. The queen then begins to lay her eggs, 

 which are of two kinds: one kind, fertilized by the 

 sperm of the drone, develops into the neuters or 

 workers, which are really infertile undeveloped 

 females ; these do all the work of the hive. The other 

 kind remains unfertilized and develops into drones. 

 Some of the pupae hatched from the fertilized eggs 

 are fed on special royal diet and develop into fertile 

 queens. Among the ants we find a similar division 

 into three sexes, or even more: fertile females and 

 males, and different kinds of workers. 



2. PHYSIOLOGICAL FACTS. 



It has already been said that for the purpose of 

 reproduction it is necessary that the two sex cells, the 

 male sperm and the female ovum, be brought to- 

 gether. For this purpose the two individuals (male 

 and female) must meet, in order to bring their germs 

 within reach of each other. This is called copulation. 

 There is no copulation among the lower animals; 

 here everything is left to chance. The discharged 



