DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



19 



pressure, were not able to produce the abundant, more fluid secretion 

 Isecause they had not been properly fed by the worker bees. 



Observation of the actions of drones during a honey flow and just 

 after a honey flow can not fail to show that drones must be well fed 

 in order to be rapid, alert and business-like on the wing. Still, with the 

 most promising alert drones, hand pressure usually failed to cause an 

 abundant discharge of seminal fluid exactly like that obtained (for ex- 

 ample) when a drone held in the warm hand sometimes performed the 

 act himself. In seeking a reason for this the writer examined the semi- 

 nal vesicles and accessory glands of a number of select, active drones 

 after they had suffered evagination of the copulatory organ through 

 hand-pressure. Sometimes one or more of the glands and vesicles were 

 found to have been partly crashed — or, pressed far into the everted penis 

 hy the side of the ejaculatory duct — usually, without having emptied 

 themselves through the contraction of their own muscular walls. Of 

 course, a small amount- of the crushed gland secretion was often forced 

 "through the ejaculatory duct, but the pressure stimulus as applied to 

 the drone's abdomen did not appear to be a sure or specific stimulus to 

 "set off" the powerful muscles in the walls of the seminal vesicles and 

 accessor\^ glands. It must be evident that without the proper contrac- 

 tion of those muscles, and the consequent emptying of the stored sperm- 

 atozoa and granular mucous together through the ejaculatory duct, no 

 mechanical evagination of the penis, however complete, could be of any 

 avail. Moreover, if successful mating is to be carried out (even in 

 limited practice) while the queen and a properly selected drone are 

 held in the correct position, there must be found some stimulus other 

 than hand-pressure — a stimulus which will cause evagination of the 

 male organ, and discharge of sperm-fluid by the contraction respectively 

 of the ai3dominal wall muscles, and the muscular walls of the seminal 

 vesicles and accessory mucous glands. 



Fig. 1. Holder and fine elastic wire used in directing the movements of the drone and queen. 

 The loop of the silk thread "a" passed around the body between the thorax and abdomen. The 

 tiny metal disc "b" rested against the posterior dorsal portion of the thorax just beneath the 

 wings. The V-shaped notch "c" served for fastening the thread. 



Fig. 2. Forceps and block used in mating tests, t =thin metal blade on the lower edge 

 of the right forceps prong — described in text, i =Pin used m certain mating tests. 



