i8 AUSTRALASIAN BEE MANUAL 



Munich in 1784 — therefore previous to the experiments 

 of Huber — " describes the spermatheca and its contents 

 and the use of the latter in impregnating the passing 

 egg " ; and also that " years ago the celebrated surgeon 

 John Hunter and others supposed that there must be a 

 permanent receptacle for the male sperm opening into 

 the oviduct." Nothing certain was known, however, 

 until 184s, when the brilliant discoveries of Dzierzon 

 led to the promulgation of the theory which bears his 

 name, and especially to the doctrine of 



PARTHENOGENESIS. 



On this point Professor Cook says : — 



"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 

 scientific apiculture must rank with the great Huber, was 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." 



Space will not admit of going into the details of 

 observations and experiments by which the case has 

 been proved, but they are fully discussed in an excellent 

 little work on the Dzierzon Theory by the Baron von 

 Berlepsch. 



DEVELOPMENT FROM THE EGG TO THE BEE. 



Having now come to understand the manner in which 

 the egg, whether male or female, is laid, we may 

 examine the egg itself, and the way in which the germ 

 it contains becomes developed into the full-grown 

 insect. 



The egg, when laid in the cell, requires a tolerably 

 sharp sight to distinguish it as it lies at the bottom, 

 attached by one end to the comb by means of some 

 glutinous fluid with which it is coated. It is very small 

 and not round or oval like a bird's egg, but long, like 

 a small worm or maggot. It is, however, a true egg. 



