28 



TIIK ri:A(!TIC\L BKE GUTDE. 



25,000,000 (22) ; a duct which joins the spcrmatheca with the 

 vag-ina, and which, by opening or closing, permits or prevents 

 the passing of the spermatozoa whin eggs are traversing the 

 common oi'iilucf icojJ) ; and the raijina. 



44. Parthenogenesis, — In 1845 Dzieizon (80) announced his 

 discovery of parthenogenesis in bees (22). In 1849 he wrote — 



" In the copulation of the cjueen, the ovary i- not impregnated, but 

 this vesicle or seminal receptical (Fig. 12j is penetrated or filled by the 

 male semen. By this, much, nay all of what was enigmatical i.s .solved,— 

 especially how the Cjueen can lay fertile eggs in the early spring, 

 when there are no males in the l-iive. The supply of semen received 

 during copulation is sufficient for her whole life. To lay drone-egg.s, 

 according to iriy experience, requires no fecundation at all." 



Later en he wrote : — 



" All eggs which come to maturity in the two ovaries of a cjueen-bee 

 are ^'nly of one and the same kind, which, when tliey are laid without 

 coming in contact \\ith the male ^^eiiitri, become developed into male 

 Bees, but. on the cmtrary, when tliey are fertilized by male semen, 

 produce female Bees.'* 



45. Fertilisation of the Egg The queen can, at will, 



fertilise the egg as it passes the entrance to the spermatheca, 

 or can allow it to pass unfertilised : in the former case it will 

 produce a female bee ; in the latter, a male. It follows that 



if a queen be mated with a drone of 

 a different race the workers pro- 

 duced by the queen will exhibit 

 characteristics of both parents, 

 while the drones will partake of the 

 nature of the queen only. Excep- 

 tions to this rule may, indeed, occur, 

 but very infrequently — as where 

 the drones of a black queen that has 

 mated with a Ligurian drone have 

 sliown some slight Ligurian charac- 

 teristics. Dzierzon and other= -ug- 

 gesied that these misht result from 

 a laying Italian worker, or from the 

 action of an nura seminalis ; but Sie- 

 bold proved the existence of seminal 

 filaments in thirty of fifty-two female 

 eggs examined, while in t\\enty- 

 seven drone eggs similarly examined 

 he found not one seminal filament. 

 The supply of sjiermatozoa, decreas- 

 ing as the fertilisation of her eggs 

 proceeds, fails and becomes ex- 



!::|T;RMATnFX'A. 

 (Mj^'ni.lcd forty limos.) 



n. Space filled by clear fluid 

 b, ilass of Spermatozoa; c 

 Cpermatliccal Du't; d- -J, Spcr 

 malo/i a in activiiy. 



