Becejotaculum Seminis of Bees and Wasj)s. By F. B. Cheshire. 9 



female (partially developed as to sex in the worker, and fully so 

 developed in the queen), whicli will possess qualities of both father 

 and mother, so that the tiny spermatozoon not only differentiates the 

 entire creature, but communicates unerringly differences of species 

 or mere variety even. The spermatozoa from Cyprian, Italian, and 

 English bees are to the most refined microscopical examination 

 identical, and yet they contain differences which determine almost 

 countless variations in form, colour, size, instinct, capability, and 

 temper. 



That the spermatozoon enters the egg is certain, for it may 

 be found if the latter be carefully examined immediately after 

 deposition. (It is my opinion, resting upon facts which do not 

 fall within the scope of this paper, that Siebold * has possibly been in 

 error in imagining that he has noticed more than one spermatozoon 

 within an egg. The great length of the body, about 250 //,, 

 necessitates many convolutions and would make misconception 

 easy f). The head (see fig. 4) of the spermatozoon is very narrow 

 in order that the micropylar aperture may be passed, but to effect 

 this time must be occupied, and how is tliis given ? It is clear 

 from what I have already said that the spermatozoa pass not into a 

 plain tubular cavity to meet the descending egg, but into a pouch 

 which I find to be elastic and curiously formed of folds of the 

 lining membrane of the common oviduct, and which takes up picric 

 acid from picro -carmine far more freely than the oviduct proper, 

 whilst its surface is dotted over with linear patches of setse from 

 two to six in a patch and from 1 to 3 //. in length. Its structure 

 is particularly difficult to examine, and I should require to carefully 

 dissect many more examples of it before I would commit myself to 

 a drawing, but I am satisfied that into or against this pouch | the 

 eggs that are to form workers are conveyed, and that here they are 

 brought into contact with the spermatozoa and fertilization is 

 accomplished, while drones are evolved from eggs which are carried 

 down by the path c, fig. 3, by the side of the pouch to the 

 ovipositor and so escape all contact with the fertilizing fluid. 

 The oviducts are very highly organized, containing a most beautiful 

 system of longitudinal and transverse muscular fibres repletely pro- 

 vided with nerve-twigs, evidently giving to the oviducts the most 

 complete control of the eggs which are to pass through them, while, 

 as just hinted, they are not without strong indications of 'two 



* Siebold ' On True Parthenogenesis,' p. 85 et seq. 



t I have not failed to note that possibly the body of the spermatozoon is very 

 elastic, measuring much less in the coiled than in the straight form. 



% Is not the pouch described by Mr. Lowne as the bursa copulatrix of the 

 blow-fly the same in use as the form now engaging our attention ? The bursa 

 copulatrix of the bee is lower down, and is sketched at plate II. tig. 3, d. It is 

 worth noting hero that the diameter of the pouch is about 60 ix greater than that 

 of the egg. 



