56 PHTSIOLOGY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 



males, or drones ! He stated that in several of Ms hives he 

 found drone-laying queens, whose wings were so imperfect 

 that thejf could not fly, and which, on examination, proved 

 to be unfecundated. Hence, he concluded that the eggs 

 laid by an unimpregnated queen-bee, had sufBcient vital- 

 ity to produce drones. 



133. Parthenogenesis, meaning "generation of a virgin," 

 is the name given to this faculty of a female, to produce 

 offspring without having been fecundated, and is not at all 

 rare among insects. 



134. In the Autumn of 1852, our assistant found a young 

 queen whose progeny consisted entirely of drones. The 

 colony had been formed by removing a few combs contain- 

 ing bees, brood, and eggs, from another hive, and had 

 raised a new queen. Some eggs were found in one of the 

 combs, and young bees were already emerging from the 

 cells, all of which were drones. As there were none but 

 worker-cells in the hive, they were reared in them, and not 

 having space for full development, they were dwarfed in 

 size, although the bees had pieced the cells to give more 

 room to their occupants. 



We were not only surprised to find drones reared in 

 worker-cells, but equally so that a young queen, who at 

 first lays only the eggs of workers, should be laying 

 drone-eggs, and at once conjectured that this was a case of 

 an unimpregnated drone-laying queen, sufficient time not 

 having elapsed for her impregnation to be unnaturally re- 

 tarded. All necessary precautions were taken to determine 

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

 although her wings appeared to be perfect, she could not 

 fly. It seemed probable, therefore, that she had never been 

 able to leave the hive for impregnation. 



135. To settle the question beyond the possibility of 

 doubt, we submitted this queen to Professor Leidy for mi- 

 croscopic examination. The following is an extract from 



