98 A PROBLEM OF HEREDITY 



organic structure. In this she differs from the 

 aphides. The offspring of a virgin aphis is like 

 herself, a female. Up to a certain number of 

 generations, females can thus be produced by 

 females. Difficult as this is to understand, it 

 pales into positive simplicity when compared with 

 the case of an insect which produces something 

 entirely unlike itself. But this is not all. The 

 union with the male produces an insect which 

 is like neither father nor mother, except so far 

 as the worker bee has rudimentary and for the 

 most part useless female organs. 



Still another aspect of the question seems to 

 defy explanation by any of the known laws of 

 heredity. It is generally understood that, subject 

 to the laws of variation, under which no two 

 creatures are ever exact counterparts of each 

 other, like does produce like, and that qualities 

 possessed by parents will be transmitted more or 

 less faithfully to their posterity. Thus lions of 

 a fierce race will produce lion cubs whose nature 

 will be expected to be asfierce,more or less, as their 

 parents. Sometimes the characteristics of one 

 parent are more prominent in the offspring than 

 those of the other, frequently to the apparently 

 entire exclusion of the other parent's qualities. 

 In the case of mules, there is a mingling of the 

 characteristics of each parent to an extent which 

 is sometimes almost ludicrous. So universal is 

 this rule, that it is with the greatest difficulty that 



