42 THE BBB KBEPEB'S MANUAL. 



I was not only struck with the singularity of finding 

 drones reared in worker cells, but with the equally singular 

 fact that a young Queen, who at first lays only the eggs of 

 workers, should be laying drone eggs at all ; and at once 

 conjectured that this was a case of a drone-laying, unimpreg- 

 nated Queen, as sufiicient time had not elapsed for her im- 

 pregnation to be unnaturally retarded. I saw the great 

 importance of taking all necessary precautions to determine 

 this point. The Queen was removed from the hive, and 

 carefully examined. Her wings, although they appeared to 

 be perfect, were so paralized that she could not fly. It seem- 

 ed probable, therefore, that she had never been able to leave 

 the hive for impregnation. 



To settle the question beyond the possibility of doubt, I 

 submitted this Queen to Dr. Joseph Leidy for microscopic 

 examination. The following is an extract from his report : 

 " The ovaries were filled with eggs ; the poison sac was full 

 of fluid, and I took the whole of it into my mouth ; the poi- 

 son produced a strong metallic taste, lasting for a considera- 

 ble time, and at first, it was pungent to the tip of the tongue. 

 The spermatheca was distended with a perfectly colorless, 

 transparent, viscid liquid, without a trace ef spermatozoa.'''' 



This examination seems perfectly to sustain the theory of 

 Dzierzon,and to demonstrate that Queens do not need to be 

 impregnated, in order to lay the eggs of ^males. 



I must confess that very considerable doubts rested on 

 my mind, as to the accuracy of Dzierzon's statements on 

 this subject, and chiefly because of his having hazarded the 

 unfortunate conjecture that the place of the poison bag in 

 the worker, is occupied in the Queen, by the spermatheca. 

 Now this is so completely contrary to fact, that it was a 

 very natural inference that this acute and thoroughly honest 

 observer, made no microscopic dissections of the insects 



