36 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



present (Plate XVIII. ) , to my readers. The smaU globu- 

 lar sac (Z>), communicating with the oviduct {JE), which 

 he thought secreted a fluid for sticking 'the eggs to the 

 base of the cells, is the seminal reservoir, or spermatheca. 

 Any one who will carefully dissect a queen-bee, may see 

 this sac, even with the naked eye. 



It will be seen that the ovaries '( G and S) are double, 

 each consisting of an amazing number of ducts* filled 

 with eggs, which gradually increase in size.f 



Huber, while experimenting to ascertain how the queen 

 was fecundated, confined some young ones to their hives 

 by contracting the entrances, so that they were more than 

 three weeks old before they could go in search of the 

 drones. To his amazement, the queens whose impregna- 

 tion was thus retarded never laid any eggs but such as 

 produced drones ! 



He tried, this experiment repeatedly, but always with 

 the same result. Bee-keepers, even frord the time ol 

 Aristotle, had observed that all the brood in a hive were 

 occasionally drones. Before attempting to explain this 

 astonishing fact, I must call the attention of the reader to 

 another of the mysteries of the bee-hive. 



It has already been stated, that the workers m-q proved 

 by dissection to be females which under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances are, barren. Occasionally, some of them 

 appear to be sufficiently developed to be capable of laying 

 eggs ; but these eggs, like those of queens whose impreg- 

 nation has been retarded, always produce drones ! Some- 



* Tbe ducts in this cat are representea as more numerous than those in Swam- 

 mordam's drawing. 



■(• Since the flrst edition of this work was issued, I have ascertained that Posel 

 (page 64) describes the oviduct, of the queen, tho spermatheca and its contents, 

 and the use of the latter in impregnating the passing egg. His worli was published 

 at Munich, in 1V84. It seems also from his worlc (page 36), that before tho inves- 

 tigations of Huber, Jansha, the bee-keeper royal of Maria Theresa, had discovored 

 tho tact that the young queens leave their hive in search of the drones. 



