ORGANS OF THE QUEEN. 21J 



rather more than ^in. i n diameter, glistening like 

 burnished silver, because coated with the closest 

 and most densely felted plexus of tracheae with which 

 I am acquainted. This spermatheca is in structural 

 communication with the common oviduct, but the 

 smallest roughness will break it from its attach- 

 ment, and will frustrate any endeavour to discover 

 how it is filled up and used. Should it, by accident, 

 become detached, however, we may still study the 

 exceedingly curious and complicated valvular appa- 



Fig. 43.— Spermatheca (Magnified Forty times). 



a Space filled by Clear Fluid; b, Mass of Spermatozoa; e, Spermathecal Duct; 



d, d, Spermatozoa in Activity. 



ratus with which it is furnished. Removing it to the 

 stage of the dissecting microscope (see page 74), and 

 surrounding it with dilute glycerin, we get glimpses 

 of a contained membrane between the meshes of the 

 investing tracheae. So far as I know, those who have 

 studied this matter have failed to discover that these 

 tracheae merely closely embrace the actual sperma- 

 theca and that they in no instance enter its walls; 

 but such is the fact, and, by very careful teasing and 

 cuttincr with needle-knives, we may so separate the 



