S4 



Organs of ^ueen Bee. 



a double conduit, had it existed. Cheshire, in his first vol- 

 ume, has given us two original points: this double passage, 

 and the auditory organs of the antennae, neither of which 

 are probably correct. The spermatheca, according to 

 Leuckart, may contain 25,000,000 spermatozoa. We see, 

 then, why it does not run empty, even though Siebold 

 showed that each of the one and one-half million of eggs 

 that a queen may lay, receives two or three sperm cells. 

 That an egg does receive more than one spermatozoa, was 

 not only demonstrated by Siebold, but is analogous with 

 facts as seen in higher animals. The eggs, which, as Girard 

 states, do not form as early in the ovaries as do the 

 sperm cells in the organs of the drone, are a little more than 



Fig. 26. 



Fig. 25. 



^teen JUen, maffiiifiedt 



Bee E^g; 



A Er.. 

 m Miciopile. 



B Large end. 



1-16 of an inch long, slightly curved and rather smaller 

 at the end of attachment to the comb. The outer mem- 

 brane (Fig. 26) appears cellular when magnified, and 

 shows the micropile at the larger end (Fig. 26, B, tn). 

 The possession of the ovaries and attendant organs, is the 

 chief structural peculiarity which marks the queen, as these 

 are the characteristic marks of females among all animals. 

 But she has other peculiarities worthy of mention: She is 



