140 
QUEEN ORGANS, 
they fill, the remaining parts of the inverted organ 
occupying the space above, the spermatophore being 
forced against the top of the common oviduct {c). 
The pressure exerted by the muscular coat of the 
vagina prevents the contents coming outside, and 
the spermatozoa are driven into the oviducts {b b), 
Leuckart (93) was able to prove this by a microscopic 
examination of three queens just after impregnation. 
In all the three queens the oviducts were swollen 
out considerably, and contained a large number of 
spermatozoa, while the spermatheca contained either 
none or very few. The contraction of the muscles of 
the oviducts drives the spermatozoa into the sper- 
matheca. Leuckart also found in the walls of the 
vagina, opposite to the outlet of the spermathecal duct, 
a valvular joint, which closes the lower end of the 
common oviduct, the muscular walls of which exert a 
pressure which assists in forcing the semen into the 
spermatheca. 
In order that a queen may lay eggs that will produce 
females she must leave the hive for impregnation, and 
this takes place, as we have seen, in the air. Janscha 
(73) was the first to observe that the queen, when 
she left the hive for the first time, after crawling about 
on the alighting board, flew a few feet from the hive 
with her head towards it, and then proceeded to fly in 
horizontal circles, gradually extending them. After a 
few minutes she returned to the hive. Often her second 
flight takes place a few minutes after the first, and it is 
not until she has made herself thoroughly acquainted, 
with the locality that she takes her wedding flight. 
