2l6 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



homologues of one another, as are also the germ 



cell (initial egg) of the ovary, and the sperm cell 



(spermatozoon) formed in the testis. The egg, as 



laid, contains not only the germ cell, and possibly 



the sperm cell — the male and female elements for 



the production of a new individual — but also a 



j l 

 store of food (food-yolk), making up its mass, and 



supplying material for the development of the embryo, 

 until it is capable of absorbing nutrition by the 

 processes of ordinary digestion. We noticed, in the 

 last chapter, that the spermatozoa of the drone, as 

 developed, passed on to a store-chamber (the vesi- 

 cula seminalis), where these sperm cells awaited 

 utilisation. The homologue of the vesicula is clearly 

 a globular pouch in the queen (the spermatheca, 

 s, Fig. 42, and Fig. 43), which receives and becomes 

 the depository of the millions of spermatozoa ejacu- 

 lated during the marital flight. Again, at the time 

 of mating, the spermatozoa require a medium in 

 which they may be floated into their proper desti- 

 nation, and, to supply this, the mucous gland (mg, 

 Fig. 41) is provided ; it is into this that the vesi- 

 cula seminalis opens, and, during ejaculation (see 

 page 205), the mucous secretion and the spermatozoa 

 are sent forward together. The mucous gland has 

 also its representative, or homologue, in the queen, 

 in the appendicular gland (Fig. 44) of the sperma- 

 theca. 



To return to the queen. Near the commencement 

 of the common oviduct {co.d, Fig. 41), which is fastened, 

 by complicated attachments, to the fifth abdominal 

 ring, we find the before-mentioned globular body (s), 



