96 HUMBLE CREATURES. 



that eggs producing females are in every case de- 

 posited either in the queen-cells^ which are larger^ 

 or, what is still more remarkable, in the worker- cells, 

 which are smaller than the drone-cells, whilst in the 

 last-named, male eggs are invariably placed ? 



All the information that is furnished to us in this 

 respect by the present state of our knowledge goes 

 no farther than to show that this wonderful attribute 

 of the Queen Bee is not accidental, but that her 

 actions are directed by some definite law, for the 

 fulfilment of which her organs of reproduction are 

 suitably framed ; and we must ask you to refer once 

 more to this portion of the anatomy of the Queen 

 Bee (PI. VIII. figs. 1, 3, 3), where you will perceive the 

 two ovaries filled with eggs, and (fig. 2, s) the Httle 

 pocket attached to the oviduct, in which, as before 

 stated, the male elements are stored that fertilize the 

 eggs in their passage through the oviduct. 



Although the consideration of these organs may 

 perhaps not be suggestive of anything remarkable to 

 you, yet an examination of them led to the discovery, 

 by a famous German bee-keeper and naturalist, Herr 

 Dzierzon, of Carlsmarkt, of the following wonderful 

 phenomenon, namely, that "aU eggs that come to 

 maturity in the two ovaries of the Queen Bee are 

 only of one and the same kiad, which, when they are 

 laid without coming into contact with the male semen, 

 become male Bees ; but, on the contrary, when they are 

 fertilized by male semen, produce female Bees*." 



* Siebold, ' On the Parthenogenesis of the Honey Bee ' 53. 



