12 EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN. 



such moments she was usually eager to fly when quietly released from 

 the trap. If, on the other hand, the queen had been m the trap tor some 

 time, having come out when the nucleus was not under observation, ner 

 presence was almost alwavs marked by a small cluster of workers. A 

 flight did not often occur in the latter case, and as a rule it was touna 

 better to simply allow her to run back into the nucleus— no difficulty was 

 experienced with any queen when the trap was momentarily removed 

 and she was placed in the nucleus entrance. 



Of course, when a virgin was once released and took wing, watch 

 had to be kept for her return home, but the trap would then prevent 

 her entry until she could be captured for study, or allowed to "run m" 

 according to the wish of the observer. 



Nine virgins were observed in eighteen flights. Five of the nine 

 were lost, but the other four were captured "newly mated," with the 

 torn drone organ present in the vulva, before their respective nuclei. 

 The vaginae of two* of the four queens were dissected open carefully 

 in order to examine the part of the drone organ present and in both 

 cases the bulb only, of that organ, was found. A study and comparison 

 of the two showed that both bulbs had been everted. Studied with 

 reference to orientation in the vagina, the gelatinous-like thickening 

 forming a concavity or cup, in each case, faced dorsalward and anterior- 

 ly. The convex side of the bulb was turned ventral ly and slightly 

 toward the mouth of the vagina. The "prongs" of the two symmetrical 

 bulb-plates were directed posteriorly and dorsally — their curved points 

 against the dorsal wall of the vagina. Almost all the membraneous 

 parts had been stripped from the gelatinous-like thickening and chitiu 

 plates of one of these bulbs. In case of the other, however, the penis 

 had been torn off betAveen the pinnate-lobed appendage and the bulb, 

 while the ejaculatory duct also had been torn away at its point of at- 

 tachment with the latter. The part of each bulb which faced up and 

 anteriorly, toward the inside of the vagina (i. e., the cupped part of the 

 bulb), was covered Avith the thickish, white, coagulated sperm-fluid. 

 This fluid, in fact, packed all the part of the vagina anterior to the 

 bulb, and in one queen the oviducts also were quite distended with it. 

 Figs. 17 and 18 show cross sections of one oviduct of this queen 

 through the portion most widely distended with the sperm-fluid. Both 

 spermatozoa and the granular secretion from the accessory mucous 

 glands are shown to be present mixed togetlier. The seminal receptacle 

 of this same queen was sectioned and studied. But very few of the 

 spermatozoa had gained access to iff— showing that the receptacle was 

 not filled by the first discharge of the spermatic fluid into the vagina 

 in this case, at least. 



The other two of the four queens referred to in this connection were 

 not dissected. It was determined for both, however, that the everted 

 bulb was the part of the male organ that showed as a "white pellicle" 

 in the vagina. One of these queens was caught upon her return trip 

 and held, while, with a pair of forceps, the bulb was gentlv worked 

 loose by pushing downward until it could be slipped out of the vulva 

 As i n the fo rmer two queens, the concave part of the bulb was turned 



♦Both killed in hot chloml hydrate (w.iterl solution— 1 to -^0 

 nul?XZ7^^^sreZTt.Z'^,T:?&i'^'fX^^^^^ -'-° «'- was caught hefot-e hef 



