228 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



juice. Spermatozoa, thickly present, will cause the 

 addition of large quantities of fluid, more widely 

 separating them. Their absence (for this gland is 

 most richly provided with nerve twigs, which send 

 numerous loops to the muscles previously described, 

 and to the ganglion, i, lying under the muscle, g, 

 and placed just over k in the Figure) will yield the 

 action which will send a new contingent forward as 

 I have described, and so they come to be paid out 

 with some regularity. The necessity for this regu- 

 larity will be better appreciated if we remember that 

 a prolific queen will lay, during her life, 1,500,000* 

 eggs (see page 83) — a number so vast that the eggs, 

 lying in contact, end to end, would stretch about 

 one and three-quarter miles. Deducting a few thou- 

 sand for drones (for the production of which sper- 

 matozoa are not needed), the remainder would each 

 require an independent fertilisation, and, for this work, 

 possibly, 4,000,000 spermatozoa, or even less, may be 

 at command. In this connection, it is most interest- 

 ing to note that the spermatozoa, in the different 

 genera and species, stand in beautiful relation to the 

 number of eggs deposited by the fertile female. In 

 the queen wasp, by example, the fecundity is much 

 less, happily, than in the honey bee, and so the sper- 

 matheca is considerably smaller, the capacity of that 

 of the former insect being only about one-fortieth of 

 that of the latter, the spermatozoa being nearly of 

 the same size. The organs of the male wasp are 

 correspondingly reduced. 



* This number is much beyond an average ; but it certainly has been 

 reached, if not exceeded. 



