SWARMING AND HIVING. 
127 
bo firmly to lier body, that it could not be lemoved with- 
out tearing her to pieces. 
The following facts will show that the impregnation of 
the queen by the drone, in the open air, may he made a 
matter of ocular demonstration: Lewis Shrimplin, of 
Wellshoro’, Brook County, Virginia, purchased a mova- 
ble-comb hive, in the Spring of 1857, into which he put a 
second swarm. Finding, after a few days, that the bees 
had built a number of very straight combs, he called some 
of his neighbors together, to witness the ease Math which 
he could take out, and replace their combs. While stand- 
ing in front of the hive, he saw the queen coming out, and 
the idea occurred to him to catch her, and tie a very fine 
silk thread to one of her thighs. This he accomplished 
successfully; and as she began to ascend,* the drones 
by which means those can act by pressure. In the Interior of the body of tho bee, 
upon the neighboring penis which is to be protruded.” 
“The following interesting experiment" (Parthenogenesis, p. 54) “ wasmado by 
Berlepsch, in order to confirm the dronc-productivencss of a virgin queen. He 
contrived the exclusion of queens at tho end of September, 1864, and, therefore, at 
a time when there was no longer any males; he was lucky enough to keep one of 
them through tho Winter, and this produced dronc-ofTspring on tho 2d of March, in 
tho following year, furnishing fifteen hundred cells with brood. That this drone- 
benring queen remained a virgin, was proved by the dissection which Louckart 
undertook, at tho request of Berlepsch. He found the state and contents of tho 
seminal pouch of this quoen to be exactly of tho same nature as thoso found in 
vlndn queens. The seminal receptnclo in such females never contains semen- 
masses, with their characteristic spormatozoids, but only a limpid fluid, destitute 
of cells and granules, which is produced from the two nppendicular glands of the 
seminal capsule; and, ns I suppose, serves tho purpose of keeping the semen 
transferred Into tho seminal capsule in a fresh state, and tho spormatozoids active, 
and, consequently, capable of impregnation." 
By referring to pages 88, 89, the reader will see that Prof. Lcidy dissected for 
mo a drone-laying queen, nearly throe years beforo this examination of Leuckart. 
Prof. Sicbold, In 1843, examined tho spermatheea of tho queen-bee, and found it 
after copulation, filled with the seminal fluid of the drone. At that time, Api- 
arians paid no attention to his views, but considered them, as he says, to ho only 
“ theoretical stuff." It seems, then, that Prof. Leidy’s dissection (pp. 81, 35) was 
not, as I had hitherto supposed, tho first, of an impregnated spermatheea. 
* Dzlerzon supposes that tho sound of the queen’s wings, when she is in tho 
air, excites tho drones. In the Intorior of tho hlvo, thoy uro never scon to nnijca 
