74 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



erl the hope that certain environments, 

 either natural or artificial, would leave 

 their mark upon apis mellifica, as they 

 have and do noon other living things. 

 Are we not taught by Darwin, and the 

 naturalists in general, that plants, as well 

 as animals of all description, adapt them- 

 selves, in a measure, to changed condi- 

 tions ? The whale may have cast off four 

 feet and developed a tail instead, in his 

 efforts to adapt himself to changed en- 

 vironments, for all I know. This may 

 have taken him millions of years — I 

 wasn't there and don't know; but ii)iie 

 does not cut an}- figure. 



THE BEE MAY NOT BE WHAT IT 

 WAS ONCE. 



Millions of j^ears ago the nature of the 

 honey bee may have been altogether dif- 

 ferent from what it is to day. It would 

 not be unreasonable to suppose that at 

 one time the honey bee combined not 

 only both sexes in one individual ( her- 

 maphrodite), but could also gather hon- 

 e}-, pollen etc., and build comb. A grad- 

 ual change of environments brought 

 about a division of labor in the honey- 

 bee. The queen monopolized the egg- 

 laying business, the drone the produc- 

 tion of sperm, and the workers fitted 

 themselves for their part of the work. 

 When I say that this theory is not very 

 unreasonable, I have in my mind the 

 worker bees who possess, up to this day, 

 all faculties. They gather honey and 

 pollen; build comb and lay eggs. Do 

 they produce sperm? Well, that is a 

 matter upon which we need more light. 

 Really, we do not know. True, all our 

 works on bees say, they do not; or, rather, 

 it is supposed as something impossible 

 and unheard of; is left entirely out of all 

 calculation. Still, this fact remains: Un- 

 mated queens and workers produce and 

 deposit eggs which generally develop 

 into drones. I cannot conceive how any 

 living thing could possibly come from 

 eggs without some sort of fertilization had 

 taken place; no matter how mysteriously. 

 Even in much lower organisms, as plants 



for instance, seed is not produced with- 

 out fertilization; we should not expect it 

 in higher organisms. I once owned a 

 queen which filled the combs with eggs 

 very regularly, but never a one hatched. 

 Her eggs proved absolutely infertile. 

 You see, Mr. Editor, there is a difference 

 between eggs that produce drones and 

 eggs that produce nothing. The former 

 probably received some sperm of some 

 unknown origin; the latter did not. I be- 

 lieve our bee to day is in a degree a her- 

 maphrodite. But this only by the way. 

 When this division of labor occurred, 

 and the queen bee assumed the responsi- 

 bility of laying the eggs for all offspring 

 (under normal conditions), she abstained 

 from doing any other work. She does 

 not go out any more after honey or pol- 

 len. She dues not know what is going 

 on in the world, nor what the world 

 needs. In time she became, like the 

 drone, a one-sided specialist, unfit for any 

 other occupation, and would quickly die 

 when placed upon her own resources. 



CHANGE IMPO.SSIBLE IF ENVIRONMENT 



HAS NO EFFECT. 



And this is the situation of the present 

 day. Having arrived here, we have come 

 to a state of things when further improve- 

 ment (or change in any way) of our hon- 

 ey bee would seem impossible if Mr. C. 

 A. Ohnstead (last issue of Review, pages 

 46 and 47) were right. The bee would 

 have passed that stage where adaption to 

 environments could be thought possible, 

 and it would be just as well for us to save 

 all our labors and be satisfied with our 

 bee as it is. My hopes would be blasted. 

 However, I don't believe Mr. Ohnstead 

 is right; although the result of his ex- 

 periments may seem to bear him out. 



THE WHOLE COLONY TO BE REGARDED 

 AS A SINGLE ORGANISM. 



We must bear in mind that the queen 

 and the drone are able to live only be- 

 cause the blood of the workers, which 

 are the most important factors and the 



