THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
23 
Opostega. Bucculatrix crislatella has 
attached to it the romantic interest which 
clings to the “ last of the race.” — H. T. 
Stainton; April 11, 1857. 
NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
On a True Parthenogenesis in Moths and 
Bees : a Contribution to the History of 
Reproduction in Animals. By Pro- 
fessor Von Siebold. Translated by 
W. S. Dallas, F.L.S. 8vo, cloth, 5s. 
London : John Van Voorst, Paternos- 
ter Row. 
Many of our readers are already well 
aware that there are sundry little wing- 
less insects, of the genus Solenobia, pro- 
duced from larvae, which live in cases, 
and which are found on palings and 
trunks of trees in the early spring, which 
are no sooner hatched than, without ever 
meeting with a male moth, they lay eggs, 
which produce larvae, and these are in 
due time again developed into wingless 
females, and so on apparently ad infini- 
tum. 
This fact, which the collector looked at 
simply as an annoyance depriving him 
of the winged males, which he coveted, 
and giving him a surfeit of wingless 
females for which few would thank him, 
Professor V on Siebold had previously tried 
to explain, as analogous to the propaga- 
tion of Aphides, the spring and summer 
broods of which contain no males and no 
perfect females, but only a sort of substi- 
tute for the latter, to which he applied 
the term (which one can hardly hear the 
first time without laughing) of nurses. 
But subsequently having carefully dis- 
sected these fertile female Solenobice, he 
has discovered that in their physiology 
they were totally different from the 
Aphis-nurses, and were really and truly 
perfect females. The fact remains, 
therefore, puzzling and perplexing; why 
is it that in species where males and 
females exist the latter sex can dispense 
with the services of the former? 
Lepidopterists are not very fond of 
Hymenoptera, they see too much of them 
in the form of Ichneumons, and perhaps 
they hardly show sufficient cordiality to 
Hymenopterists ; yet, from a branch of 
this last class of entomologists a ray of 
startling light has arisen, and a new 
wonder is revealed to us in this year 
1857, as great a wonder to us entomolo- 
gists as was the discovery of America 
more than 350 years ago to the Europe 
of that day. The branch of Hymenop- 
terists to which we allude is that very 
extensive fraternity of Bee Keepers : the 
new marvel is this. A Queen Bee, 
that has never had her nuptial flight 
with a drone, will lay her eggs (appa- 
rently) just as usual, and all such eggs 
will produce neither queens, nor workers, 
but invariably drones, — no females, per- 
fect or imperfect, but only males ; and 
when the Queen Bee has had her nuptial 
flight with the drone she can, at will, lay 
eggs of either sex she chooses. The 
details by which this is accomplished are 
too minutely physiological to enter upon 
here ; but any of our readers, who are 
medical men, will be surprised to find 
how interesting, in a physiological point 
of view, is the entomological work on 
which we are treating. One chapter of 
the book is devoted to a record of cases 
in which virgin females of the silk-worm 
moth have laid fertile eggs. 
Having now given our readers a rapid 
summary of the contents of this interest- 
ing volume, we proceed to give a few 
extracts. 
Speaking of the Solenobice (p. 25), 
Professor Von Siebold observes : — 
“ In Berlin I collected, at two different 
times, a great number of cases of Soleno- 
bia lichenella and S. triquetrella, so that 
during the years 1850, 1851 and 1852, I 
got together several hundreds of these 
cases, but to my greatest astonishment 
none but female individuals were ex- 
