ORGANS OF THE QUEEN. 215 



Egg germs are far later in making their appearance 

 in the queen than are the spermatozoa in the drone, 

 the former being invisible up to the time of the 

 hatching of the queen nymph, whose ovarian tubes 

 then are filled with pellucid globules, resembling those 

 that precede the appearance of the seminal filaments 

 in the drone testis. The eggs are of a pearly-white 

 colour, and, during the time that queens are actively 

 ovipositing, more than a dozen, in various stages of 

 maturity, may be found in a single ovarian tube, or 

 follicle, standing end to end. like the beads of a 

 necklace. Of these, at times of activity, many will 

 be ready for deposition ; but, in winter, the number 

 in progress will be reduced to one-half, or less, while 

 scarcely any in a perfected condition exist. Each 

 tube emerges into the oviduct (od), the commence- 

 ment of which is formed by the opened-out walls of 

 those on the outside of the ovary. The inner tubes 

 unite together at their lower edges, and so complete 

 the cover of the oviduct above, forming beneath them 

 a funnel-shaped cavity (the ventricle of the oviduct), 

 into which each egg first enters in its passage from 

 the tube in which it had been matured. The delivery 

 pipes of these funnel-shaped hollows (the oviducts), 

 uniting to form the common oviduct {co.d), are really 

 very highly organised channels, possessed of curious 

 powers of the greatest moment. 



The similarity between the drone and queen must 

 here be remarked, the testes and vasa deferentia 

 (Fig. 41) bearing, both in structure and position, a 

 great resemblance to the ovaries and oviducts of the 

 queen, these parts being, really, respectively the 



