OCT.— DEC. 185T.] 



On Moths and Bees. 



113 



great caution required in carrying on an investigation of this kind, 

 and to have devised his experiments accordingly. 



In his introduction, he describes the seminal receptacle found in 

 female insects. The existence of such a receptacle in bees, explains 

 how it is that a queen, fertilized by a single coitus, after discharg- 

 ing a number of eggs in the first year, may again, in the following 

 year and still more subsequently, lay eggs capable of development, 

 because the seminal filaments are preserved in this receptacle un- 

 injured, and in a quantity sufficient for successive broods. Siebold 

 reviews at length the cases of alleged true parthenogenesis or " Lu- 

 cina sine concubitu," which are to be found recorded by many 

 observers, and shows that errors may have occurred in the obser- 

 vation of these cases ; one of the earliest on record is that of Al- 

 brecht, who in 1701 wrote a treatise — " De insectorum ovis sine 

 prsevia maris cum femella conjunctione nihilominus nonnunquam 

 fcecundis." He took a brown pupa, which he preserved apart, 

 and yet the moth evolved therefrom laid fertile t eggs. He says : 

 — " Cum masculum huic papilioni haud adfuisse certus essem, et 

 propterea ejus ova subventanea et sterilia esse judicarem, vix am- 

 plius eorum habui rationem relictis interim iisdem oscitantius et 

 sine omni curh sub dicto vitro per totum tempus hyemale." Dr. 

 St. Blancard is stated, too, in 1696, to have had a spider 

 which for four consecutive years laid eggs from which young 

 spiders escaped, " although no male spicier had ever appeared in 

 the business." Dumeril, Bernoulli, Treviranus, Burmeister, and 

 others have made similar observations, but in all these instances 

 the possibility of mistake has been shown by Siebold. This au- 

 thor then enters upon experiments which he performed on some sac- 

 bearing Lepidoptera, particularly Solenohio lichenella and triquet- 

 rella, and by taking every precaution he convinced himself, and 

 doubtless his readers also, that true parthenogenesis occurred in 

 Pyschides. Examples in the honey bee next came under his no- 

 tice, and in these investigations he was greatly assisted by the dis- 

 tinguished apiarian, Dzierzon. From accurate observations of the 

 habits of bees, as well as from careful dissections, Dzierzon arriv- 

 ed at the singular conclusion, that drone eggs require no fecunda- 

 tion, and that true parthenogenesis is normal in these insects. 



