MANUAL OF THE APIARY. 81 



■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 difficult 

 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 unsuc- 

 cessful. 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 of other bees and wasps, 

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

 males and females. While the great Bonnet first discovered 

 what may be noticed on any summer day, all about us, even 

 on the house-plants at our very windows, that parthenogenesis 

 is best illustrated by the aphides or plant lice. In the fall 

 males and females appear, which mate, when the female lays, 

 eggs, which in the spring produce only females ; these again 

 produce only females, and thus on, for several generations, 

 till with the cold of autumn come again the males and 

 females. Bonnet observed seven successive generations of 

 productive virgins. Duval noted nine generations in seven 

 months, while Kyber observed production exclusively by 

 parthenogenesis in a heated room for four years. So, we see, 

 that this strange and almost incredible method of increase, ia 

 not rare in the great insect world. 



About two days after she is impregnated, the queen, under 

 normal circumstances, commences to lay, usually worker-eggs, 

 and as the condition of the hive seldom impels to swarming 

 the same summer, so that no drones are required, she usually 

 lays no others the first season. 



It is frequently noticed that the young queen at first lays 

 -quite a number of drone-eggs. Queen-breeders often observe 

 this in their nuclei. This continues for only a few days. 

 This does not seem strange. The act of forcing the sperm-cells 

 from the spermatheca is muscular and voluntary, and that 

 these muscles should not always act promptly at first, is not 

 strange, nor is it unprecedented. Mr. Wagner suggested that 



