DRONE ORGANS. 
127 
300, which open into the vasa differentia, the ducts 
just below them. It is in the chrysalis of the drone 
that the testes have the greatest development, nearly 
equalling at this period the ovaries of the queen. These 
canals are then filled with ripe spermatic tubes, and 
Fig. 53. — Drone Organs. 
with filamentous spermatozoa (/) endowed with a 
lively serpentine movement, which Girard ( 48 ) has 
likened to a field of corn oscillating under a gentle 
breeze. Girard says in the adult most of the sper- 
matozoa have passed into the seminal vesicles, and 
the testes shrink and flatten, their membranes being 
traversed by numerous tracheal tubes. 
The spermatozoon is structurally a cell, and differs 
