THE DRONE. 81 



ergy. The slow and weak in tho race die without heirs, so that 

 the survival of the fittest is not an ac-cideut, hut a predetermina- 

 tion. In previous chapters we liavo considered his hisiily-devel- 

 oped eyes, meeting at the vertex of his head, his multitudinous 

 smell-hollows, and his strong large wings, tlie advantage of 

 which now appears in a clearer light; his quiclcnoss in discover- 

 ing a mate, whose neigliborhood is to him tilled with irresistible 

 odours, and his ability in Iveeping her in view during pursuit, are 



no less helpful to his purpose than fleetness on the wing " 



—(Cheshire.) 



188. The drone perishes in the act of impregnating the 

 queen. Although, when cut into two pieces, each piece 

 will retain its vitality for a long time, we accidentally ascer- 

 tained, in the Summer of 1852, that if his abdomen is gently 

 pressed, and sometimes if several are closely held in the 

 warm hand, the male organ will often be permanently ex- 

 truded, with a motion very like the popping of roasted pop- 

 corn ; and the insect, with a shiver, will curl up and die, as 

 quickly as if blasted with the lightning's stroke. This singu- 

 lar provision is unquestionably intended to give additional 

 security to the queen when she leaves her hive to have inter- 

 course with the drone. Huber first discovered that she 

 returned with the male organ torn from the drone, and still 

 adhering to her body. If it were not for this arrangement, 

 her spermatheca could not be filled, unless she remained so 

 long in the air with the drone, as to incur a very great risk 

 of being devoured by birds. In one instance, some days 

 after the impregnation of a queen, we found the male organ,* 



• We give, as interesting in this connection , tile foUo-wing extract from Mr. 

 Langstrotli'B journal: "August i5lh, 18.52.— Found the male organ protruding 

 from a young queen; could not remove it without exerting so much force that 

 I feared it would kill her. Dr. Joseph Leidy examined this queen-hee with 

 the microscope, ao as to demonstrate that— to use his words— 'it was the penis 

 audits appendages of a male, corresponding in aUits anatomical pectdiarities, 

 with the same organs examined, at the same time, in other drones. The tes- 

 ticles and vasa deferentia of these drones were found to be full of the spermatic 

 fluid. The spermathera of the queen was distended with the same semi-fluid, 

 spermatic matter.' This one examination demonstrates that the drones are 

 males, and that they tmpregnate the queen by actual coition. ' ' 

 6 



