on the Sex of Bees. 17 
ments, made all in glafs-hives, which carry with then* 
an entire evidence, afford fufficient reafons to aflert, that 
bees belong to that clafs of animals among which, al- 
though they have fexes, a true copulation cannot be 
proved ; and that their ova, like the fpawn of fifties, moil 
probably owe their fecundation to an impregnation from 
the males, as will appear in the fequel of this narrative. 
I am not a little pleafed to find that the celebrated ma- 
raldi had fucli a notion, and I lament his neglecting to 
confirm it. He fays, in his Obfervations upon Bees , in the 
Hiftory of the Academy of Sciences for the year 1712, 
p. 332: Nous n'avons pu. decouvrir jufqu' a prefent de 
quelle maniere fe fait cette fecondation,Ji deft dans le corps 
de la femelle , ou bien ft c'eft a la maniere dcs poijfons, apres 
que la femelle a pofe fes oeufs: la matiere blanchatre dont 
Voeuf eft environne au fond de l' alveole peu de temps apres 
fa naijfance, femble conforme a la dernier e opinion , auffi- 
bien que les remarques faites plufteurs fois d'un grand 
nombre d'ceufs qui font reftes infeconds au fond de I'al- 
veole autour defquels nous n’avons point vu cette matiere. 
(i We never yet were able to difcover in what manner 
“ this fecundation is performed; whether it is in the body 
“ of the female, or whether it is after the manner of 
u fifties, after the female or queen-bee has depofited 
“ her eggs : that liquid whitifh fubftance, with w r hich 
Vo L. LX VII. D “each 
