Mating oj the Queen. 73 



large air-sacks (Fig. 2,/) of the drones shall be filled, which 

 he thinks is only possible during flight. The demeanor of the 

 drones suggests that the excitement of flight, like the warmth 

 of the hand, is necessary to induce the sexual impulse. 



Many others with myself have followed Huber in clipping 

 the virgin queen's wing, only to produce a sterile, or drone 

 laying queen. One queen, however, the past season, whose 

 wing was clipped just as she came from the cell, and the en- 

 trance to whose hive was guarded by perforated zinc so the 

 queen could not get out, was impregnated, and proved an ex- 

 cellent queen. So it seems more than possible that mating in 

 confinement may yet become practicable. 



If the queen fails to find an admirer the first day, she will 

 go forth again and again till she succeeds. Huber states that 

 after twenty-one days the case is hopeless. Bevan states that 

 if impregnated from the fifteenth to the twenty-fii-st she will be 

 largely a drone laying queen. That such absolute dates can 

 be fixed in either of the above cases is very questionable. 

 Yet all experienced breeders know that queens kept through 

 the winter as virgins are sure to remain so. It is quite likely 

 that the long inactivity of the spermatheca wholly or in part 

 paralyzes it, so that queens that are late in mating cannot im- 

 pregnate the eggs as they desire. This would accord with 

 what we know of other muscular organs. Berlepsch believed 

 that a queen that commenced laying as a virgin could never 

 lay impregnated eggs, even though she afterwards mated. 

 Langstroth thought that he had observed to the contrary. 



If the queen be observed after a successful "wedding tour," 

 she will be seen, as first pointed out by Huber, to bear the 

 marks of success in the pendant drone appendages, consisting 

 of the penis, the yellow cul-de-sacs,; and the hanging thread- 

 like ducts (Fig. 12), which are still held in the vulva of the 

 queen. 



It is not at all likely that a queen, after she has met a 

 drone, ever leaves the hive again except when she leaves with 

 a swarm. Some of the observing apiarists think that an old 

 queen may be again impregnated. The fact that queens, with 

 clipped wings, are fertile as long as others, makes me think 

 that cases which have led to such conclusions are capable of 

 other explanation. 



If the queen lays eggs before meeting the drone, or if for 



