ORGANS OF THE QUEEN. 235 



muscles (m, m' , Fig. 45), for which I can conceive of 

 no purpose, unless it be to so reduce, by their con- 

 traction, the opening lying by the side of the fer- 

 tilising pouch (p) that an egg could not, except they 

 are relaxed, pass in this direction, and so escape 

 fertilisation. That these parts have great regulating 

 capability, and are not mere tubular conduits, is 

 proved as much by their nerves as by their muscles. 

 The last abdominal ganglion lies immediately be- 

 neath, and in contact with, the oviducts and sperma- 

 theca, and, from it, branches of nerves run in 

 abundance into the oviducts, the spermathecal valve 

 muscles, the sting, and their palpi ; while small 

 ganglia are distributed in profusion, a considerable 

 one lying over the valve, and sending branches for- 

 ward into the fertilising pouch. The manner in which 

 the spermatozoon itself finds its way is utterly in- 

 scrutable. The fact of its continued vitality with no 

 distinguishable change, either in size and form, or 

 motile activity, during the whole of the queen's life, 

 save from five to ten days, between which ages she 

 usually mates, is most surprising. Constant nutrition 

 and oxidation can alone be capable of sustaining it 

 to the last in the freshness it had when first intro- 

 duced to the spermatheca. Cold, however, kills it. 

 Here Dzierzon's experiments have the deepest in- 

 terest. He found that a queen which had been 

 refrigerated for some time, although capable of re- 

 vivification by warmth, never afterwards laid other 

 than drone eggs, whilst before she had been a good 

 producer of workers. Berlepsch placed three queens 

 for thirty-six hours in an ice-house ; two died, but 



