190 
Beekeeping 
or male offspring is pure Italian. This fact is important to 
the breeder, for drones from mismated queens are just as 
good for breeding purposes as those from purely mated 
queens. It is true that this has been denied by various 
writers but the denial is based chiefly on variation in the color 
of the drones, it being overlooked that color is not a safe 
criterion for the purity of race of either queens or drones. 
Color is a much more stable characteristic in workers. The 
parthenogenetic development of drones must be considered 
in planning any breeding work with bees. In the selection 
of breeding material it does not necessarily follow because 
the workers of a colony have the quality desired that the 
drones of that colony will be best for breeding purposes, 
since the hereditary characters of the workers come from 
two parents while those of the drones come from only one of 
the two. 
Hermaphrodite bees. 
Many cases are recorded 1 of bees which show both male 
and female characters. These hermaphrodites or androgy¬ 
nous bees may have male characters on the head and female 
characters in the abdomen or they may be divided longitudi¬ 
nally in various combinations of characters. There is a 
mixture of male and female characters, varying in different 
individuals, in both external and internal organs. It is a 
peculiar fact, not easy of explanation, that when such cases 
occur there are often many in the same colony. Boveri 2 
suggests that in such cases fertilization is delayed until after 
cell division has begun and that only part of the cells receive 
criticism is probably based on the belief that sterility is characteristic of 
hybrids, as in the case of the mule, or it may be based on the belief that 
the word should be applied only to crosses of true species. There seems to 
be no objection to the word as beekeepers use it. It is most commonly 
applied to crosses of Italian and German bees. 
1 v. Della Torre, K. W. u. Friese, H., 1899. Die hermaphroditen und 
gynandromorphen Hymenopteren. Berichtc d. naturw.-med. Ver. Inns¬ 
bruck, XXIV. 
2 Boveri, Th., 1901. Ueber die Polaritat des Seeigel-eies. Verb. Ges. 
Wurzburg (N. S.), XXXIV, pp, 145-170. 
