274 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



time, is almost exclusively occupied by the embryos 

 (dy, C, Fig. 54) and the digestive apparatus. If an 

 adult female be removed from the under side of the 

 leaf of a rose bush, and the abdomen snipped, as many 

 as thirty immature Aphides may often be seen to escape, 

 by applying a little pressure, under the microscope. 

 The embryos are in all stages of development, those 

 lying nearest the body aperture being the largest, and 

 showing the eyes, antennae, and limbs fully formed. 

 The description previously given of the ovaries of the 

 queen bee (page 213) will aid in understanding the 

 ovarian chamber in this smaller insect. They are 

 gathered into tubes, which are, again, formed into two 

 bundles, disposed laterally, each communicating with 

 its own oviduct. The upper extremities of the ovarian 

 tubes are very attenuated, and lead into a chamber 

 where the germinal matter is elaborated. Here 

 nucleated cells are visible, which, according to Brandt,' 55 ' 

 have an amoeboid, movable nucleus, and correspond 

 to the ordinary germinal vesicles, with their usual spot ; 

 the ovum becomes the larva, which is extruded fully 

 formed, as we have already seen. The progeny, even 

 at the time they quit the parent, show the traces of 

 another generation within themselves ; thus, a single 

 insect, hatched from one of the shining black ova, 

 may, during her lifetime, be the mother of many 

 billions of young. Reaumur calculated that one 

 Aphis may give origin to the enormous number of 

 5,904,900,000 individuals during the month or six 

 weeks of her existence. Happily, Aphides have many 

 insect enemies, which, as our friends and helpers, must 

 *-" Ueber das Eiund seine Bildungsstatte," 1878. 



