FRUCTIFICATION OF THE EGG IN THE CELL. 81 



When the queen lays an egg, she enters the cell retro - 

 gradely, and having deposited the egg, she withdraws, and 

 hastens to another. The drones enter the cell in the same 

 manner, and emit the seminal fluid, which fecundates the 



egg- 

 As an advocate of that particular system, we have had 

 several difficulties proposed to us, and the apparently un- 

 satisfactory manner in which they have been solved, arising 

 from the acknowledged mystery in which the natural 

 history of the bee is enveloped, has been the cause of 

 triumph to the adherents of the copulating system. Not- 

 withstanding, however, the assertions of many apiarians, 

 which are said to be founded upon actual and repeated 

 observation, it is certain that not a single drone is per- 

 mitted to remain in the hive during the winter. We have 

 frequently examined our hives, from the month of October 

 to the middle or end of February, and never yet could find 

 a single drone. Now here the first difficulty presents itself. 

 In what manner are the eggs fructified in the spring, as 

 there is not a single male to be found in the hive ? The 

 adherents of the system of coition assert, that, previously 

 to the destruction of the drones in the autumn, they fruc- 

 tified the queen, and that she remains in that state until 

 the spring. According, however, to that hypothesis, it is 

 not the egg which is fructified, but the body of the queen ; 

 for in this case, how could the eggs be fructified, which 

 were not in the ovarium of the queen at the time of the 

 last coition with the drone ? The difficulty, however, of the 

 fructification of the egg in the cell, when there is no drone 

 to be found in the hive, remains still to be solved. In order 

 to arrive at the solution of this problem, we have reluctantly 

 destroyed many fine hives, but not without many successful 

 results. In the month of August, 1839, we observed one of 

 our populous hives busily employed in the massacre of their 

 drones, and we selected that hive on which to continue 



