§ IX.] REPRODUCTIVE ECONOMY. .63 



filled the conditions required, and invariably produced 

 drone bees, the theory was erected that these fertile 

 workers were the regular producers of that sex. But 

 this plausible solution of the problem did not stand 

 examination. Every fertile queen does habitually lay 

 eggs in drone cells, and from those eggs drones are 

 uniformly developed. Dissection and microscopic 

 analysis had therefore to be resorted to, and the course 

 of investigation commenced by Swanimerdam and pur- 

 sued by Mile. Jurine was now pushed to a much further 

 extent. 



Proceeding from the two ovaries of the queen there 

 are two canals, called oviducts, which presently unite, 

 and immediately beyond their point of juncture is a 

 pmall globular receptacle which is called the spermatheca. 

 With fertile queens it was found that this appendage is 

 permanently occupied by a fluid identical with that in 

 the reproductive organs of the drones, and that as such 

 jt abounds in spermatozoa ; while with a virgin queen the 

 fluid is totally destitute of these, and is wholly different 

 in appearance, being thin and transparent. From this 

 discovery the conclusion foUpwed that each egg, as 

 it passes down the oviduct and over the mouth of the 

 spermatheca, may either receive fecundation or not, 

 according as the queen's own will or some other cir- 

 cumstance shall determine. Dzierzon accordingly pro- 

 pounded as the apparent, though still only hypothetical, 

 solution of the enigma, what is known as the doctrine 



