6 EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN. 



latory organ in the vulva of the newly mated queen might give positive 

 evidence of the position assumed by the queen and drone relative to 

 each other in the moment of coition. The importance of gaining posi- 

 tive knowledge in this connection is evident. Before attempting to 

 intercept queens returning from the mating flight in order to make the 

 examination just suggested, however, it was only natural to under- 

 take a careful first hand review of the structural characters of the re- 

 productive organs in the queen and drone — especially of the copulatory 

 organs in the drone. This report has to do, therefore, more particularly 

 with a study of the male and female reproductive organs and with the 

 relation of these organs in sexual union as demonstrating the relative 

 position ^assumed by the drone and queen in that act. 



STRUCTURAL CHARACTERS OF THE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS. 



The structural features of the organs of both sexes of the honey-bee 

 have been studied, described, and illustrated by more than one student. 

 Swammerdam's drawings of the reproductive organs of the queen and 

 drone, published in "The Book of Nature," were the first illustrations 

 to exhibit the essential gross characters of those organs. Later, 

 Cheshire (188C) in the first volume of his "Bees and Bee-Keeping," 

 published illustrations of both the male and female organs of the hive- 

 bee. In 1910, Snodgrass, Tech. Bulletin No. 18, U. S. Dept. of Agr., 

 Bureau of Entomologj', has also given original drawings of the repro- 

 ductive organs in the queen and in the drone honey-bee. Attention is 

 called to the drawings of these three workers in particular because their 

 Illustrations of the organs mentioned have been accepted and copied 

 m manuals and books on bees in general use today.* A few observa- 

 tions made m the study carried on in this connection should, perhaps 

 be recorded. ' ^ ^ ' 



n. GRG.INS OF THE QUEEN. 



Cheshire has omitted one of the glandular vessels emptying into the 



base of the sting (see Snodgrass-B. gl., Allcaline gland of the Sting) 



n his Figure 42 entitled "Ovaries of the Queen, etc.," p. 213, Vol. I of 



'Bees and Bee-Keepnig." Also he has represented the poison sac as 



emptynig into the base of the sting on the ventral side of the v^ina 



side'' rr °Tn tr'' '" ''f '^r ^^"^'^ ^^^^^ ^^ designated an "under 

 side ue^y. In the queen bee, the base of the sting and the duct emotv- 

 ing into it from the poison sac lie dorsad (instead of ventrad to the 

 bursa copulatriv and the vagina. Figure 57 nained 'Soduct^^e 

 organs, stmg, and poison glands of the queen, dorsal view ''as c^U^n 



ojnits the alkaline gland of the ,^ing nittir^lbt/'burthT' otter 



*See the footnote on page 10. 



