18 EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN. 



ing the operation, and the drone organ had to be everted at just the 

 right moment— when the sting was slightly protruded — otherwise, the 

 bulb would not press deeply enough into the vagina to hold; and the 

 organ might be prevented from entering the vaginal opening at all. Two 

 different devices, or instruments, for separating the queens' cover-shields 

 and pressing the sting dorsalward were tried. 



Fig. 2 shows a block holding a pair of sharp-pointed forceps which 

 have a very thin ]»late soldered to the lower edge of the right-hand prong, 

 near the tip. With the prongs pressed together, the tip of the forceps 

 could be inserted into the "sting notch" ventral to the sting (the queen 

 being held ventral side up) to force. the cover plates apart. A peg in 

 the block allowed the torcep-prongs to open about one-fourth inch. The 

 male organ might then be made to enter between the tip of the prongs 

 while the thin plate (a. Fig. 2) held the sting dorsalward. A pair of 

 Bausch and Lomb "Binocular magnifiers" were found most helpful in 

 this connection. 



The other device consisted simply of a No. -i insect pin, with the 

 head bluntly pointed, bent at right angles one-sixteenth of an inch from 

 the head end, and inserted firmly in a block as shown at i, Fig. 2. 

 The bluntly pointed pin-head could be inserted in the "sting notch," 

 and as the queen's cover shields separated, she could be moved so that the 

 pin passed over the sting and held it dorsalward. This device was the 

 simpler of the two, and served the purpose well; however, no matings 

 that proved successful were obtained with either device. In the case 

 of two queens in particular, the male organ was torn off and the in- 

 verted bulb was held in the vagina exactly as has been described in nor- 

 mal matings. Later examinations of the queens' seminal receptacles 

 proved that no spermatozoa had been stored in them. One of these 

 queens was kept (before dissection) in her nucleus until she had pro- 

 duced about one-third of two frames of drone brood in worker comb. 

 'The brood came out normal, except that the individual drones were 

 small. Living spermatozoa were found in their seminal vesicles. Two 

 other queens with which controlled mating had been attempted, were 

 kept in their respective nuclei until a small amount of drone brood had 

 been started in worker cells. The abdomens of all these "drone laying" 

 queens were somewhat enlarged, and dissection showed a few fully de- 

 veloped eggs in some ovarian tubules, although the ovaries were not as 

 fully enlarged as are those of fertile laying queens. Most of the virgins 

 used in the tests, however, continued to come out into the queen traps, 

 at )nteiva]s, in atteni]tts to make mating flights evidentlv, until thev 

 wore themselves out. 



Why was it that even the matings which were apparenthj normal in 

 every way proved unsuccessful in storing the seminal receptacles with 

 spermatozoa? 



McLain and Baldwin (Am. Bee J., Vol. 23, p. .jtiT) state that in press-- 

 ing out drones they found only a comparatively few that yielded a fluid 

 seminal secretion resembling albumen. Others gave no ' secretion or 

 only a thick curdy supply. It was with the fluid resembling albumen 

 when i)ressed from the drone organ, that these men claim to have had 

 success. McLain believed that drones yielding practicallv no fluid or 

 only a curdy supply, through evagination of the male organ by hand- 



