62 PHYSIOLOGY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 



142. It had long been known that the queen deposits 

 drone-eggs in the large or drone-cells, and worker-eggs in 

 the small or worker-cells (flg 47) , and that she usually makes 

 no mistakes. Dzierzon inferred, therefore, that there was 

 some way in which she was able to decide the sex of the egg 

 before it was laid, and that she must have such control over 

 the mouth of the seminal sac as to be able to extrude her 

 eggs, allowing them at will to receive or not a portion of its 

 fertilizing contents. In this way he thought she determined 

 their sex, according to the size of the cells in which she laid 

 them. 



143. Mr. Samuel Wagner had advanced a highly in- 

 genious theory, which accounted for all the facts, without 

 admitting that the queen had any special knowledge or will 

 on the subject. He supposed that, when she deposited her 

 eggs in the worker-cells, her body was slightly compressed by 

 their size, thus causing the eggs as they passed the sperma- 

 theca to receive its vivifying influence. 



144. But this theory was overthrown by the fact that 

 the queen sometimes lays eggs in cells that are built only to 

 a third of their length, whether worker-cells or drone-cells, 

 and in which no compression can take place. Yet, it is very 

 difficult to admit that the queen is endowed with a faculty 

 that no other animal possesses, that of knowing and deciding 

 the sex of her progeny beforehand. It seems to us that she 

 must be guided by her instinct like all other beings, for she ' 

 always begins, in the Spring, by laying in small cells, using 

 large cells only when no others are in reach in the warm 

 part of the hive. Sometimes, however, when she is very 

 heavy with eggs, she lays in drone-cells as she comes to them, 

 and will sometimes seek them. Usually it is only when the 

 hive is warm throughout, and worker-cells all occupied, that 

 she fills the unoccupied drone-cells. This has given rise to 

 the popular theory that the bees raise drones whenever they 

 intend to swarm. It is possible that the width of the cells 

 and the position of her legs when laying in drone-cells (234) 

 prevents the action of the muscles of her spermatheca. 



