74 ' Parthenogeiiesis. 



any reason she fails to mate, her eggs will only produce male 

 bees. This strange anomaly — development of the eggs with- 

 out impregnation — was discovered and proved by Dzierzon, in 

 1845. Dr. Dzierzon, who, as a student of practical and scien- 

 tific apiculture, must rank with the great Huber, is a Roman 

 Catholic priest of Carlsmarkt, Germany. This doctrine- 

 called parthenogenesis, which means produced from a virgin 

 — is still doubted by some quite able bee-keepers, though the 

 proofs are irrefragable: 1st. Unmated queens will lay eggs 

 that will develop, but drones always result. 2d. Old queens 

 often become drone-layers, but examination shows that the 

 spermatheca is void of seminal fluid. Such an examination 

 was first made by Prof Siebold, the great German anatomist, 

 in 1843, and later by Leuckart and Leidy. I have myself 

 made several such examinations. The spermatheca can easily 

 be seen by the unaided vision, and by crushing it on a glass 

 slide, by compressing with a thin glass cover, the difference be- 

 tween the contained fluid in the virgin and in the impreg- 

 nated queen is very patent, even with a low power. In the 

 latter it is more viscid and yellow, and the vesicle more dis- 

 tended. By use of a high power, the active spermatozoa or 

 sperm-cells become visible. 3d. Eggs in drone-cells are 

 found by the microscopist to be void of the sperm-cells, which 

 are always found in all other fresh-laid eggs. This most con- 

 vincing and interesting observation was first made by Von 

 Siebold, at the suggestion of Berlepsch. It is quite diflicult 

 to show this. Leuckart tried before Von Siebold, at Ber- 

 lepsch's apiary, but failed. I have also tried to discover these 

 sperm-cells in worker-eggs, but as yet have been unsuccess- 

 ful. Siebold has noted the same facts in eggs of wasps. 4th. 

 Dr. Donhoff, of Germany, in 1855, took an egg from a drone- 

 cell, and by artificial impregnation produced a worker-bee. 

 Such an operation, to be successful, must be performed as 

 soon as the egg is laid. 



Parthenogenesis, in the production of males, has also been 

 found by Siebold to be true oC other bees and wasps, and of 

 some of the lower moths in the production of both males and 

 females. Adler has shown that this agamic reproduction 

 prevails among the ChalcididiB, a family of parasitic Hymenop- 

 tera, and it has long been known to characterize the cynips or 

 gall-flies ; while the great Bonnet first discovered what may be 



