DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY. 13 



dorsalward and forward, facing inside tlie vagina — i. e., toward the at- 

 taciiment of tlie seminal receptacle (spermatheca). 



The fourth queen had been gone only 15 minutes when she returned 

 mated. In her case it was not found necessary to remove the bulb 

 from the vagina in order to determine that its orientation was the same 

 as in the three instances already described, and that it also was everted. 

 As soon as the bulb had been examined by turning it a little from side 

 to side with the forceps, this queen was placed at the entrance to her 

 nucleus and allowed to run in. Three minutes later the nucleus was 

 opened; — it was the purpose to determine, if possible, what disposition 

 would be made of the bulb which had been left in the vulva. Workers 

 were found to be following the queen about very attentively, some of 

 them nipping at the torn male organ which seemed now about half 

 out of the vaginal opening. Very soon the queen passed around on 

 another frame, and when caught sight of again, the white penis-bulb 

 was lying on the hive bottom just beneath her. Whether a worker ac- 

 tually pulled the bulb from the queen was not observed, but she was 

 free from it within scarcely more than five minutes after she entered 

 the nucleus. Undoubtedly this bulb had been loosened a little in the 

 vagina by the forceps during the examination mentioned; but it was 

 noticed also that the elastic gelatinous-like thickening was slightly 

 shriveled when the bulb was picked up from the hive bottom. In order 

 to determine whether this mating would really prove successful, the 

 queen's wings were clipped and she was then introduced into a strong 

 nucleus, the hive entrance of which was covered with a queen and drone 

 trap. She was found out in the trap only once, three days after the 

 introduction. On the twenty-first day she had three frames of sealed 

 worker-brood besides other larvae and eggs. It would seem almost cer- 

 tain, therefore, that spermatozoa had been stored in the seminal re- 

 ceptacle. 



If we consider the four cases just described together, now, the 

 practically similar statements with respect to orientation of the bulbs 

 in the vaginae will appear most significant' only when considered with 

 the determination (stated in each instance) that the bulbs were fully 

 everted. This determination itself rests upon evidence afforded by 

 two observed conditions which should perhaps be clearly repeated in 

 this connection : 



First, The pair of symmetrical bulb-plates, within the vagina, were 

 placed so tliat their "slender prongs" pointed dorsally and toward the 

 opening of the vagina in each case— i. e., toward the position that the 

 base of the copulatory organ must have occupied before it was torn 

 away, and that relative arrangement of the plates can occur only in the 

 fully evaginated organ (see Fig. 4)— not in the partially evaginated 

 organ. 



Second, The concave surface of the gelatinous-like thickening was not 

 enclosed by the membranous portion of the bulb-wall, but the convex 

 side of the thickening was covered by that membrane (except in the in- 

 stance mentioned when the latter was almost entirely torn away)— a 

 condition, again, which can be true only of the fully evaginated organ. 



One other newly mated queen, with male organ attached, was caught 



