208 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



Italian fertile worker, and which gave, with a black 

 queen, some workers of the mixed race. In such 

 cases as these, where so much is beyond the reach of 

 actual observation, it is best to cautiously abstain 

 from dogmatising, but the spermatozoa which these 

 drones contain I have found perfectly indistinguish- 

 able, microscopically, from those in the normally pro- 

 duced insect. 



The statement that fertilisation differentiates the 

 sex in bees — a matter into which we shall enter fully 

 hereafter— introduces some of those curious freaks in 

 which the parts common to the two sexes are dis- 

 tributed, in ludicrous confusion, to one individual, to 

 which the name hermaphrodite is alone applicable. 

 A few strange cases have occurred in my own apiary ; 

 but the most remarkable were sent me through the 

 kindness of Mr. Thompson, of Blantyre, his know- 

 ledge of the typical forms enabling him to detect the 

 abnormal ones, which, no doubt, exist more commonly 

 than some suppose, but pass unnoticed. An account, 

 in few words, of three of these will suffice. No. i : 

 Head — worker ; perfect worker eyes, antennae, and 

 tongue; Thorax — worker, except targum (back plate), 

 which is that of drone ; legs all worker but one — 

 the right of the third pair ; Abdomen — completely 

 drone in outline ; seven segments, sexual organ male, 

 but actually accompanied by a rudimentary sting and 

 small poison bag ; sting partly developed on one side, 

 and aborted on the other. Had died with the sexual 

 organs protruded. No. 2 : Head — partly worker ; drone 

 tongue ; one compound eye large, and rising nearly to 

 vertex, other that of worker, ocelli set far back ■ 



