JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ROYAL MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 



FEBEUAEY 1885. 



TEANSAGTIONS OF THE SOCIETY. 



I. — The Apparatus for differentiating the Sexes in Bees and 

 Wasps. An Anatomical Investigation into the Strueture of 

 the Beceptaculum Seminis and adjacent parts. 



By Frank R. Cheshiee, F.K.M.S. 



{Eead 10th December, 1884.) 

 Plates I. and II. 



The labours of Siebold, Berlepsch, Leuckart, and others, have put 

 the fact of parthenogenesis in bees altogether beyond dispute, but 

 the argument, as these investigators have given it, although abun- 

 dantly sufficient, has lacked that anatomical confirmation which 

 it is the object of the present paper to supply. 



Since the Honey Bee can be so readily kept under observation, 

 and the modem hive which forms its habitat under domestication 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES I. and II. 



Fig. 1.— General plan of reproductive organs of Queen Bee (Apis metlifica). 

 0, ovaries, leading to oviducts, sp, spermatheca, or receptaculum seminis. 

 m g, mucous or appendicular gland. 6 b, bursa copulatrix. 



Fig. 2.— Spermatheca witli tracheae removed, from queen about two years old. 

 a, space filled with mucus, b, spermatozoa in situ and at rest, c, spermathecal 

 aperture, d d, spermatozoa in motion. 



Fig. 3. — Eight and left, and common oviducts, a, fertilizing pouch, b and c 

 V and c', upper and lower egg-channels, d d, bursa copulatrix. e, muscles con- 

 tracting lower channel. 



Fig. 4.— Spermatozoa from queen, length 250 fi, greatest diameter 0-5 /x. 

 a, 6, and c, parts showing a double filament (dorsal filament separated ?). 

 d, spermatozoa coiled. The position taken at death. 



Fig. 5. — Spermathecal valve and glands of Queen Bee. a a a, bbb, right 

 and left lobes of mucous or appendicular gland, c, aperture of spermatheca sp, 

 bounded by dotted line, d d d, nerves and nerve-cells, e, mucous gland 

 sphincter. /, spermathecal sphincter, g, muscle for extending valvular opening. 

 h, muscle for closing valvular opening, i, ganglion lying under muscle g. 

 k k, duct for spermatozoa. Ill, glandular structure surrounding duct, m, wedge- 

 shaped disk between sphincters e and /. n, chitinous plate under common duct 

 Ser. 2.— Vol. V. B 



