172 Mr. Hunter's Observations on Bees. 
between the male and the female, but does not say at what 
season. I should doubt this; but Mr. Schirach supposes the 
queen impregnated without copulation. I know not whether 
he means by this that she is not impregnated at all, and sup- 
poses, like Mr. Deb raw, that the eggs are impregnated after 
they are laid, by a set of small drones, who pass over the cells, 
and thrust their tails down into the cell, so as to besmear the 
egg.* Mr. Bonnet does not consider it necessary that the 
drones should be small for this purpose, for he saw a large 
drone passing over the cells of a piece of comb, stopping at 
every one which contained an egg, but at no other, and giv- 
ing a knock with his tail on the mouth of the cell three times ; 
this he supposed was the mode of impregnating the eggs. The 
number three has always been a famous number ; but it will 
not do where there are no males, which is the case of a hive in 
the spring, the time when the queen is most employed in laying 
eggs ; which made him suppose the use of the males was to 
feed the maggots with their semen. It is probable that the 
copulation is like that of most other insects. The copulation 
of the humble bee I have seen : it is similar to the common fly. 
The sting is extended at the time, and turned up on the back, 
between the two animals: they are some time in this act. In 
the hornet it is the same. The circumstances relative to the 
impregnating the queen not being known, great room has 
been given for conjecture, which, if authors had presented as 
conjectures only, it would have shewn their candour ; but they 
have given, what in them were probably conceits, as facts. 
* Mr. Debraw, knowing the drones died in the latter end of summer, or the 
autumn, was obliged to suppose a small set of males, that lived through the winter, 
for that purpose. 
