42 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONE? BEfi. 



that they were drones. As there were none bu< workef 

 cells in the hive, they were reared in them, and not having 

 space for full development, they were dwarfed in size, al- 

 though the bees, in order to give them more room, had 

 pieced out the cells so as to make them larger than usual. 

 Size excepted, they appeared as perfect as any other drones. 



I was not only struck with the singularity of finding 

 drones reared in worker cells, but with the equally singular 

 fact that a young Queen, who at first lays only the eggs of 

 workers, should be laying drone eggs at all ; and at once 

 conjectured that this was a case of a drone-laying unimpreg- 

 nated Queen, as sufficient time had not elapsed for her im- 

 pregnation to be unnaturally retarded. I saw the great im- 

 portance of taking all necessary precautions to determine 

 this point. The Queen was removed from the hive, and 

 carefully examined. Her wings, although they appeared to 

 be perfect, were so paralized that she could not fly. It 

 seemed probable, therefore, that she had never been able to 

 leave the hive for impregnation. 



To settle the question beyond the possibility of doubt, I 

 submitted this Queen to Prof. Leidy for microscopic exami- 

 nation. The following is an extract from his report : " The 

 ovaries were filled with eggs ; the poison sac was full of 

 fluid, and I took the whole of it into my mouth ; the poison 

 produced a strong metallic taste, lasting for a considerable 

 time, and at first, it was pungent to the tip of the tongue. 

 The spermaiheca was distended with a perfectly colorless, 

 transparent, viscid liquid, without a trace of spermatoioa." 



This examination seems perfectly to sustain the theory of 

 Dzierzon, and to demonstrate that Queens do not need to be 

 impregnated, in order to lay the eggs of males. 



1 must confess that considerable doubt seemed to rest on 

 the accuracy of Dzierzon's statements on this subject, and 



