156 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 



Fabre on Parthenogenesis 



By the Editor. 



THOSE of our readers who have 

 been with us for several years 

 will remember, perhaps, the 

 writings of the celebrated naturalist. 

 Fabre, and his great observations 

 upon the bee-eating wasps, the phi- 

 lantus apivorus, and his description 

 of the digger-wasps, such as the 

 sphex, the scolia, the pompilus; the 

 scientific way in which these insects 

 sting their prey sufficiently to render 

 it unable to defend itself and yet live 

 until it is eaten by the young larva 

 of the digger-wasp. (American Bee 

 Tournal, September and November, 

 1912. 



Fabre's writings are exceedingly in- 

 teresting, for although he was a 

 botanist and an entomologist, his de- 

 scriptions are as devoid of scientific 

 words as he could make them. Be- 

 sides, he spent but little time de- 

 scribing the anatomy of the insects. 

 Of this he gives just enough to ex- 

 plain their actions. He was really a 

 naturalist, studying the habits and 

 ways of all these insects and de- 

 scribing what he saw in a delightful 

 manner. The reader of his books ac- 

 companies him in his researches, so 

 vivid are his descriptions. His en- 

 tire life was spent watching the 

 small but innumerable world of in- 

 sects. 



I bought his "Souvenirs Entomolo- 

 giques" in his native language, the 

 French, and am spending many de- 

 lightful hours with him among the 

 hymenopters. But although he spent 

 years among the different varieties 

 of bees, the honeybee seems to have 

 been neglected by him, for he men- 

 tions only its enemies, the digger- 

 wasps. It was, therefore, with great 

 astonishment that I found, in the last 

 chapter of the 3d volume, a reference 

 to Dzierzon and parthenogenesis. It 

 came in the following way: 



In describing the "osmia," a family 

 of mason bees, he explains the repar- 

 tition of the sexes in the different 

 cells. In this bee, the male is smaller 

 than the female, just the opposite of 

 our honeybee, if we consider the 

 worker or neuters. But as the fe- 

 male osmia are all fully developed 

 females, the comparison between 

 them and their males is not in very 

 great contrast with that of our 

 queens and drones. The females are 

 hatched in cells measuring about 

 one-third more than those in which 

 the males hatch. Fabre wonders, as 

 we do, at what causes the sex of the 

 egg and concludes that it is entirely 

 left to the decision of the mother. 

 But as to what determines her de- 

 cision he remains ignorant. He 

 writes : 



"There remains to be told in what 

 manner is made this facultativi de 

 termination of the sexes. I know ab- 

 solutely nothing about it. If I ever 

 learn anything upon this delicate 

 question, it will 1" due to some hap- 

 ]iv circumstance for which I must 

 wait. Towards the end of my re- 

 i . In--,. I became acquainted with 

 man theory concerning the do- 

 mestic honeybee and due to the api- 



arist, Dzierzon. If I understood it 

 well, according to the incomplete 

 documents before my eyes, the egg, 

 such as it is, supplied by the ovary, 

 already has a sex; always the same; 

 it would be originally male; it is by 

 fecundation that it would become 

 female. The males would be the re- 

 sult of non-fertilized eggs; and the 

 females of fertilized eggs. The 

 queenbee, therefore, would lay fe- 

 male or male eggs according to 

 whether she did or did not fertilize 

 them, as they passed through the 

 oviduct. 



"Coming from Germany, this 

 theory inspires me with profound 

 distrust. As it has been admitted, 

 with rash precipitation, even in 

 classic books, I will surmount my 

 repugnance to investigate Teutonic 

 ideas and will submit it, not to the 

 proof of arguments, against which a 

 contrary argumentation may always 

 arise, but to the irreversible test of 

 facts." 



HENRI FABRE 



Fabre then goes on to explain that, 

 according to the Dzierzon theory, 

 the egg passes by the spermatheca 

 which contains the seminal fluid and 

 may or may not have its sex changed 

 by the action or inaction of this 

 fluid, becoming a female or a male, 

 the sex being thus determined, at 

 the will of the layer, by a pressure 

 upon the spermatheca. Now comes 

 the experience upon which he bases 

 his denial of parthenogenesis: 



"The Osmia, born industrious, dies 

 working. When her ovaries are 

 drained, she spends the remainder 

 of her strength in useless labor, 

 partitions, lids, hoards of pollen with- 

 out use. The living machine cannot 

 accept inaction, even when there is 

 nothing to do. It continues its func- 

 tions in labor without purpose. Let 

 me point these vagaries t*> thi adi p1 

 of the reasoning power ol beasts. 



"Before reaching these useless la 

 bors, my belated workers have laid 



their last eggs, the 'ocation and date 

 of which I know positively. These 

 eggs do not differ in any particulars 

 from their elders. They have the 

 same dimension, form, gloss and ap- 

 pearance of freshness. Their sup- 

 plies have nothing exceptional, 

 either, and are very well suited to 

 males, closing the laying. And yet, 

 these last eggs do not hatch, they 

 shrink, wilt and dry up on the stores 

 of food. At the terminal egg-laying 

 of some osmia I count 3 or 4 sterile 

 eggs; with another, 2 or 1. Another 

 gives fertile eggs to the last. 



"These sterile eggs, touched with 

 death from their first appearance, 

 are too numerous to be unnoticed. 

 Why do they not hatch like the oth- 

 ers which they so resemble? They 

 have received from the mother the 

 same care, the same victuals. The 

 investigations of the magnifying 

 glass show nothing that can explain 

 the fatal isue. 



"If our mind is free from precon- 

 ceived ideas, we go straight to the 

 explanation. Those eggs do not hatch 

 because they have not been fertilized. 

 Thus would perish every animal or 

 vegetable germ that did not receive 

 the vivifying impregnation. Any 

 other explanation is impossible. Do 

 not speak of the lateness of the lay- 

 ing; eggs of the same date from 

 other mothers, are perfectly fertile. 

 Once again, they do not hatch be- 

 cause they have not been fertilized. 

 "And why have they not been fer- 

 tilized? Because the seminal bag, 

 so small that it has often escaped my 

 observation, in spite of my vigilance, 

 had exhausted its contents. The 

 mothers whose spermatheca pre- 

 served till the end a remnant of the 

 fecundating element had their last 

 eggs as fertile as the first; others 

 with a seminal receptacle too quickly 

 exhausted had their last laying smit- 

 ten by death. This seems to me clear 

 as daylight. 



"If the unfecundated eggs perish 

 without hatching, those that hatch 

 and produce drones are therefore 

 fecundated; and the German theory 

 crumbles. 



"What explanation will I then give 

 to account for the marvelous facts 

 which I have exposed? None, abso- 

 lutely none. I do not explain, I re- 

 late. From day to day, more skepti- 

 cal towards explanations which may 

 be advanced to me, more hesitating 

 towards those that I might advance 

 myself, I see more and more before 

 me rising, in the black cloud of pos- 

 sibilities, an enormous interrogation 

 point." 



So the reason for Fabre's positive 

 denial of the Dzierzon theory of par- 

 thenogenesis lies in the non-hatching 

 of the last laid eggs of some of his 

 osmia. This looks convincing. Dr. 

 Phillips has himself written that he 

 "found that many eggs laid by drone- 

 laying queens fail to hatch and, in 

 i.i. t. are often removed by the work- 

 ers." But other facts rise before my 

 mind which seem to indicate a con- 

 clusion quite different from that 

 given by Fabre. 



On page 13 of the American Bee 

 Journal for January, 1916, I have 

 Kiven an experience of my young 

 days which impressed itself vividly, 



