72 MANUAL OF THE APIARY. 



ligent servant, Frances Burnens, developed so many interest- 

 ing truths, demonstrated the fact of the queen's maternity. 

 This author's work, second edition, published in Edinburgh, 



Fig. 14. 



Qtieen Bee, magnified. 



in 1808, gives a full history of his woi.derful observations 

 and experiments, and must ever rank with Langstroth as a 

 classic, worthy of study by all. 



The queen, then, is the mother bee ; in other words, a fully 

 developed female. Her ovaries (Fig. 11, a, a) are very 

 large, nearly filling her long abdomen. The tubes already 

 described as composing them are very numerous, while the 

 spermatheca (Fig. 11, e) is plainly visible. This is muscular, 

 receives abundant nerves, and thus, without doubt, may 

 or may not be compressed to force the sperm cells in con- 

 tact with the eggs as they pass by the duct. Leuckart esti- 

 mates that the spermatheca will hold more than 25,000,000 

 spermatozoa. 



The possession of the ovaries and attendant organs, is 

 the chief structural peculiarity which marks the queen, as 

 these are the characteristic marks of females among all 

 animals. But she has other peculiarities worthy of mention : 

 She is longer than either drones or workers, being more than 

 seven-eighths of an inch in length, and, with her long tapering 

 abdomen, is not without real grace and beauty. The queen's 

 mouth organs, too, are developed to a less degree than are 

 those of the worker bees. Her jaws (Fig. 21, b) or mandibles 



