AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



365 



albino cockroach, Platarnodes Pennsyl- 

 vanica. Sports, however, in the direc- 

 tion of albinoism, are quite common 

 among bees. Thus, all the races of our 

 honey-bees frequently show specimens 

 which are conspicuously ringed with 

 white hairs. This is a marked peculiarity 

 of the Carniolan variety of the German 

 race. Enterprising breeders of bees 

 have taken advantage of such sports 

 among Italian bees, and by selection in 

 breeding, have established a well marked 

 variety known as the Albino bees. If 

 albinoism is a diseased condition, in 

 which the tissues fail to secrete pigment, 

 and If by breeding it can be continued 

 and even fixed, as the above seems to 

 indicate, then surely some diseases are 

 hereditary. This fact has interest bear- 

 ing on the intermarriage of albinos, and 

 the social questions involved. 



I believe there are no truly monoecious 

 insects, no real hermaphrodites in this 

 subclass of arthropods. There are, 

 however, not uncommonly, bees that are 

 in some respects like males, and in 

 others like the workers, or abortive 

 females. 



As is well known, the male or drone 

 bees differ very decidedly from the 

 workers or undeveloped females. The 

 males have toothed mandibles, short 

 maxillae and labium, eyes that meet 

 above, ocelli thrown forward, robust 

 abdomens, and legs without the pollen 

 baskets. 



On the other hand, the mandible of 

 the worker is untoothed, the maxillae are 

 long, the ligula very long, the eyes do 

 not meet above, and the. ocelli are thrown 

 back on the vertex ; the abdomen is 

 more slight than in the drones, and on the 

 outside of the posterior legs are the curi- 

 ous modifications for conveying pollen. 



Thus it will be seen that there are 

 many characteristics that enable us 

 quickly to distinguish the drone bees 

 from the workers, aside from the actual 

 reproductive organs. 



Now, it is common, or not rare, to find 

 bees that combine these characteristics — 

 that is, in some respects, the bees will be 

 like drones, in others like workers ; 

 though, in nearly all cases, I think the 

 real sexual system will be either male or 

 female, and will generally, if not always, 

 correspond with the abdomen. If the 

 abdomen is robust or heavy, we find no 

 sting, a peculiarly female appendage, 

 but do find the male reproductive organs. 

 While if the abdomen is slight, we find 

 a sting and abortive ovaries, which are 

 always present in the worker-bee. 



Aside from this constant arrangement 

 — agreement of style of abdomen and 



sex organs — I have specimens to illus- 

 trate nearly every combination : Drone 

 head and thorax, and worker abdomen ; 

 drone eyes, and worker mouth organs, 

 thorax and abdomen ; worker head and 

 thorax, and drone abdomen, and so on 

 with almost every conceivable combina- 

 tion, even to one entire side, which is 

 drone, and the other side worker, until 

 we reach the abdomen, when all is 

 worker. 



I have observed this fact, that when a 

 colony gives us one of these bees, it is 

 pretty sure to give us several. Thus, it 

 would seem that the malformation comes 

 through some lack or diseased condition 

 of the parent bees. 



It is positively known that the male, 

 or drone bee, is the result of agamic 

 reproduction. In other words, the un- 

 impregnated bee egg will develop, and 

 always produces a male. Thus, some 

 workers, called laying workers, cannot 

 mate, but do lay eggs. These will 

 develop and always produce drones. 

 Queens often lay eggs before mating, 

 which develop into drones. Old queens 

 often become drone producers, as the 

 spermatheca becomes empty of sperm - 

 cells. The microscope never finds sperm- 

 cells in the eggs that are placed in drone- 

 cells. Thus, we believe that a queen 

 can and does voluntarily control the 

 passage of sperm-cells from the sperma- 

 theca as the egg passes by. If to be 

 placed in a worker or queen-cell, she 

 opens the door of the spermatheca, and 

 the ever-active spermatozoa push out to 

 become incorporated with the egg, and 

 we have a female. If, on the other 

 hand, the door is kept closed, no sperm- 

 cell passes, and a drone is the result. 



The amount and quality of the food 

 fed to the drone and worker, is not 

 much different, so we have every reason 

 to believe that the fact of impregnation 

 determines the development, so that 

 female or male is the result. Both von 

 Liebold and Leuckart state that they 

 found several sperm-cells in a single bee 

 egg. 



If this be true — and it surely seems 

 likely, for how could a queen control so 

 delicate an organization as the sperma- 

 theca, so as to let but a singlfe cell pass — 

 then may it not be that more than one 

 sperm-cell is required to impregnate the 

 egg so as to produce a female, and that 

 owing to a faulty organism, even some 

 drone eggs — eggs that will produce 

 drones — received a single sperm-cell (or 

 may be more), and thus, through partial 

 impregnation, we have these apparent 

 hermaphrodites ! It is, however, the 

 commonly accepted belief among scien 



