BEE MANUAL. 267 
to the other germs found, my knowledge is at present so slender, that 
I must advance nothing beyond the discovery of an enormously large 
bacillus which takes what is called the zooglea form—two, or possibly 
three, very minute kinds of bacilli and a micrococcus. The micrococ- 
cus will most probably turn out to be a putrefactive kind accidentally 
present.” 
ARRENOTOKIA. 
This name is given to a certain defective condition of queens: 
Mr. Cheshire, in carrying out his investigations, required a 
number of queens, which have been furnished him by different 
bee-keepers. Amongst them he discovered two drone-breeders, 
each with its spermatheca “ furnished completely with sperma- 
tozoa.” In explanation he says: 
“The name ‘arrenotokia,’ applied by Leuckart in 1857 to a case 
similar to the one we are considering, indicates that the queen, as dis- 
tinguished from a normal drone breeder, is fully furnished with sper- 
matozoa, and is yet incapable of fertilising her eggs.’ The possible 
causes are various, since the mechanism, so wondrously delicate and 
complex, which pays out the spermatozoa as they may be required, 
and which I explained a few months since, may fail in its muscles or 
nerves, or even the spermatozoa themselves may be defective, as 
actually appears to be the case in this instance.” 
In speculating upon the probable cause of defective sper- 
matozoa, he asks: 
“*Can the lateness of the season at which this queen was hatched in 
any way explain the matter? Drones, at the date given (October), are 
normally gone ; but the progeny of fertile workers are then discover- 
able in the prime of youth, as well as old drones permitted to live in 
queenless stocks. Speculation is easy, and the possibility suggests 
itself, that the defective spermatozoa owe their faults to the fact that 
old or abnormal drones yielded them.” The first case he examined he 
thinks ‘‘ was probably due to paralysis of some of the muscles attached 
to the spermathecal valve ;” and further says: ‘‘ This production of 
drones only has been artificially produced by pinching the extremity 
of the abdomen, so that the last ganglion is injured.” 
I have myself known young queens—to all appearance per- 
fectly healthy—after layimg worker eggs for a time, suddenly 
turn to drone-breeders in some unaccountable manner. It cer- 
tainly would be interesting to know the cause of such a change ; 
—injury to the abdomen would be almost certain to cause it. 
