3 8i 



THE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF BIOLOGY 



perfectly motionless to prevent her from 

 injuring herself by struggling. With 

 careful handling she is placed dorsal side 

 downward in a form carved out of a small 

 block of wood (fig. 3) just to fit her 

 thorax, head and abdomen, with the tip 

 of the abdomen extending slightly over 

 the edge of the wood. Furthermore, 

 this little operating-table tilts her up so 

 that the long axis of her body is in 

 direct line with the long axis of the 

 microsyringe. She is held motionless in 

 this position by several strands of silk 



microscope lamp, reflected and focused by 

 a concave mirror, but we do not expose 

 her to this intense light for long at a time. 



THE TECHNIQUE 



A few minutes before tying the queen 

 down we liberate a few choice drones on 

 the inside of the window. The strongest 

 ones demonstrate their strength by flying 

 hardest and longest against the pane, 

 while the weak and immature ones settle 

 down soon to rest at the bottom of the 

 window. While this assorting of the 



Fig. x. Showing the Position of the Apparatus Ready for Work 



thread thrown over her body and around 

 the operating-table. Much caution is 

 needed to insure that her wings and legs 

 are in comfortable position, for if she 

 should emerge from the ordeal with 

 twisted legs or crumpled wings she 

 would not be acceptable to the bees. 



A strong, steady light is needful to 

 facilitate work on dull days and at night, 

 but it is unwise to let strong artificial 

 light shine directly upon the queen, or 

 upon the spermatozoa. We employ a 

 shaft of parallel light from a 150-watt 



drones is in progress we lightly seize the 

 virgin queen to be injected, make her fast 

 in the form on the operating-table, and 

 set her aside to wait while we fill the 

 syringe. If she has been out of the hive 

 very many minutes she is hungry, and she 

 will probably accept a taste of thin honey 

 given to her on a toothpick as she waits. 

 From the few drones still flying on the 

 window we seize one of the most vigorous 

 fellows, and clip off his head. The shock 

 of decapitation will probably cause him 

 to evert the copulatory organ more or less 



