Description of ^ueen Bee. 83 



Huber, to whom every apiarist owes so much, and who, 

 though blind, through the aid of his devoted wife and 

 intelHgent servant, Francis Burnens, developed so many 

 interesting truths, demonstrated the fact of the queen's 

 maternity. This author's work, second edition, published 

 in Edinburgh in 1808, gives a full history of his wonderful 

 observations and experiments, and must ever rank with 

 the work of Langstroth as a classic, worthy of study by 

 all. 



The queen, then, is the mother bee; in other words, a 

 fully developed female. Her ovaries (Fig. 23, a, a) are 

 very large, nearly filling her long abdomen. The tubes 

 already described as composing them are very numerous, 

 there being more than one hundred, while the spermatheca 

 {Fig. 23, J b) is plainly visible. This is a membranous 

 sac, hardly 1-20 of an inch in diameter. It is fairly covered 

 with interlacing nerves, which give to it its light, glistening 

 appearance. The spermatheca has a short duct, joined to 

 which is the duct of the double appendicular glands which 

 closely embrace the spermatheca. These are described by 

 Siebold and Leuckart, who suppose that they furnish 

 mucus to render the sperm cells more mobile, so that they 

 will move more freely. Leuckart also describes muscles, 

 which connect with the duct of the spermatheca (Fig. 23), 

 which he thinks act as sphincters or dilators of this duct, to 

 restrain or permit the passage of the spermatozoa. When 

 the duct is opened the ever active sperm cells rush out, 

 aided in their course by the secretion from the appended 

 glands. Cheshire figures what he calls a gland about the 

 duct, which he supposes so thins the sperm that the sperm- 

 atozoa are economized. Such a gland as he describes would 

 need a duct which he does not mention. He also suggests 

 that the duct from the spermatheca to the oviduct is double ; 

 that a direct route is open when the male meets the queen, 

 and a circuitous one later for the passage of the sperm 

 cells, when eggs are to be fecundated. I think it far more 

 likely that this is regulated by the very muscular oviduct, 

 which receives very numerous nerves, and so must be 

 exceedingly sensitive. Such anatomists as Siebold and 

 Leuckart would not in their careful search have missed such 



