ORGANS OF THE QUEEN. 233 



the spermatozoa within. In some instances, he 

 thought he saw as many as three that had passed 

 the micropyle ; but I cannot forbear expressing 

 the opinion that possibly, or, rather, probably, 

 Siebold has been in error here, since there is 

 good reason for imagining that one completes the 

 process of fertilisation. Positiveness would be much 

 out of place ; the whole investigation is so extremely 

 exacting, and needs, for its successful prosecution, the 

 concurrence of so many favourable conditions, that 

 errors can hardly be avoided ; the remarkable length 

 of the body of the spermatozoon — about y^-th of 

 an inch, which is more than 300 times its greatest 

 width — necessitates many convolutions, and would 

 make misconception easy. Whether we have seen 

 only one or more, may, for the moment, rest ; but 

 the interesting point lies in this, that the most 

 careful examinations made by Siebold, and which I 

 have confirmed by prolonged observations, show that 

 no trace of a spermatozoon is found either within or 

 upon the eggs laid by a fertile mother in drone cells. 



Dr. Donhoff claims a curious corroboration by 

 artificially impregnating, in 1855, an egg laid in a 

 drone cell, by placing upon it a little diluted fluid 

 from a drone testis, and transferring it to a worker 

 cell. Others have failed in this experiment, but the 

 argument for the parthenogenetic production of 

 drones can well afford to do without the evidence 

 it would supply, even if repeated by many observers. 



The head (k, C, Fig. 41) of the fertilising filament 

 is very narrow, that the micropylar aperture may 

 be passed, but, to effect this, time must be occupied ; 



