PHYSIOLOGY ANB BREEDING. 39 



This principle is of immense value to all -who -would Itali- 

 anize their apiaries. 



To account for their not being impregnated, especially 

 those laid by a perfect queen, Mr. Langstroth says : 



MB. 'WAGNER'S THEOKY. 



" My friend, Mr. Samuel Wagner, of York, Pa., has ad- 

 vanced a highly ingenious theory, which accounts for all 

 the facts, without admitting that the queen has any special 

 knowledge or will on the subject. He supposes that 

 when she deposits her eggs in the worker cells, her body 

 is sUghtly compressed by their sides, thus causing the eggs 

 as they pass the spermatheca to receive its vivifying influ- 

 ence. On the contrary, when she is laying in drone cells, 

 as this compression can not take place, the mouth of the 

 spermatheca is kept closed, and the eggs are necessarily 

 nnfecundated." Mr. Harbison replies that he has no faith 

 in this "very plausible theory," and thinks that "facts, 

 further experience and observation, will demonstrate its 

 fallacy." It appears that it is easier for him. to pull down 

 than to build up, because, after showing the weakness of 



some days longer without a queen, and that they must be provitled with plenty 

 of drone cells. I never knew them to lay in worker cells. The instinct that 

 prompts the desire to preserve the colony from destruction, inspires efforts to 

 which nature will not grant success. They even endeavor to rear queens from 

 these eggs, on some occasions. The great wonder is, why a worker sliould lay 

 at all. The only solution that I can offer at present is, that the knowledge of, or 

 grief at the loss of tlieir mother, ch.inges the internal structure of a mature bee, 

 and develops eggs sufficiently vitalized to hatch drones. The theory that worker 

 layers were raised near a queen cell, and by accident were fed a little royal pap, 

 will not explain it at all. These workers were taken from a colony that h.id 

 never raised a queen, and they probably never thought of depositing an egg so 

 long as the queen was present. If this great anxiety for the mother was any 

 less, they might sometimes -neglect to avail themselves of the means of provld. 

 ing one, when t!iey had the power. 



The phenomenon of other insects than the bee, producing young without direct 

 impregnation maybe witnessed in the aphis, (Plant louse.) Not only one, but 

 several generations of females, are brouglit forth in succession. Towards the 

 end of the season a few males are produced, which continue the species for a 

 few months longer. 



