1 82 A Modern Bee-Farm 



palpi, the latter appearing to be mainly useful in conducting the 

 egg from the oviduct to its position at the base of the cell. 



Having all plainly before my eyes I then felt convinced that 

 the fore-part of the drone organ actually penetrated the common 

 oviduct; and such ultimately proved to be the case; as I 

 have carefully examined a queen upon returning from a 

 successful wedding flight, the portion of the drone organ 

 retained being so securely locked into the common oviduct 

 that the parts could only have been separated at the expense 

 of the queen's life. In this case my object was to discover 

 how soon the spermatozoa passed into the spermatheca, as the 

 latter, being already filled with a transparent liquid, it was 

 evident that one could not give place to the other immediately. 

 In the case of the queen mentioned the spermatheca was only 

 partially occupied by the spermatozoa within fifteen minutes after 

 her return. Others dissected within five or six hours have shown 

 the spermatheca filled, while the drone organ is then emptied, 

 and reduced to a thin thread, while it is removed from the vulva 

 and oviduct without strain. 



Here, then, we have the most important part of the natural 

 act laid bare. However, there remains much to be done yet in 

 obtaining suitable tubular instruments for passing the spermatozoa 

 forward, I have had them made in various forms, with fine 

 perforated points, but while I can claim partial successes, on the 

 whole it would appear that the action is so far unnatural that 

 many queens cannot be forced to accept the spermatozoa. It 

 transpires that two Americans, Messrs. McLain and Baldwin, 

 have been experimenting in the same direction, but the latter 

 does not appear to have been so careful as the other in his inves- 

 tigation, and makes extravagant assertions that are open to doubt. 

 It would appear, however, that both have fallen into the error of 

 calling the common opening the vulva, as neither seem to know 



