36 



THE HONET-BEB. 



we clearly demonstrated, as have many others, by the 

 simple test of an Italian queen, fecundated by a native 

 drone, which produced pure Italian drones, and mixed 

 queens and workers. Also, when a native queen meets an 

 Italian drone, the result is similar ; the drones are pure 

 natives, and the others of mixed blood. 



These facts being determined, it is easy to understand 

 how the eggs of an unimpregnated queen, will produce 



drones in whatever cells 

 they may be deposited. The 

 fertilization of the queen 

 fills the spermatheca with 

 the seminal fluid, which 

 impregnates a certain por- 

 tion of the eggs, as they 

 pass from the ovaries, 

 through the oviduct in 

 the process of egg-laying. 

 (Fig. 7). 



The precise causes which 

 produce the fertilization of 

 this certain portion of eggs, 

 viz., those from which 

 queens and workers are 

 hatched, and the non-fer- 

 tilization of drone-eggs, are 

 yet the basis of some dis- 



Fig. 7.— 0VABIE8 or the QUBEK. pQggJojj 



Mr. Wagner, the founder of the American Bee Journal, 

 advocated the theory that fertilization was affected by the 

 size of the cells in which the eggs were deposited ; the 

 slight compression produced by the small worker cells, 

 being sufficient to force the fluid from the spermatheca 

 as the eggs are laid. Mr. Quinby took tliis view, all his 

 experience tendmg to corroborate it. In support of this, 

 he says : " When I first saw the smallest queen that I 



