The: 9 § P ORI Y of 4 NOH CoS, 
207 
Lhe fourth obfervation on a'prolific female Bee. 
{ N a truly prolific female Bee which had 
{warmed on the 24th of July, and had laid 
many eggs, I obferved ten or eleven days after 
that I diffected it, that the beginning of the 
ovary was furnifhed with a great number of 
perfect eges; but the eggs that {till lay in the 
appendages of the oviducts, were not of that 
fize or perfection which they are obferved to 
have in the oviducts of the prolific Bees dif- 
fe€ted in the month of May, at which time 
they are moftly employed in laying their eggs; 
nor were they fo perfect as the eggs of the 
females examined in the months of autumn, as 
will be made evident in the fifth obfervation. 
From all this I difcovered, that the female 
which had fwarmed was young, and newly pro- 
duced from her cell. But whether all thofe that 
{warm are young, Icannot yet prefume toafirm 
for certain. Not only thofe eges which were 
in the lower part of the beginning of the 
oviducis, but thofe which were fituated higher 
had arrived to their perfect fize. ‘This ovary 
likewife had in it an infinite number of eggs, 
fo that in only fourteen little parts which were 
broken. off from the appendages of the ovi- 
ducts, I reckoned one hundred and {feventy four 
eggs. Hence it is not difficult to judge what a 
ftupendous number of eggs one female con- 
tains. But there was a neceffity for fuch a for- 
mation and conftruction, fince a whole hoft of 
Bees of all the three kinds were to proceed 
from one female, as is actually the cafe. This 
numerous family not only contains three, four, 
or five thoufand Bees, but fometimes nineteen 
thoufand, as hath been obferved elfewhere. I 
likewife in this fubject diftin@ly faw all the 
oviducts on each fide of the ovary unite in 
five principal branches, with which the reft of 
the ovidu€ts were connected, and through 
which each conveyed its eggs into the common 
ducts. : 
Notwithftanding all the pains I took, I could 
not difcover the orifice of the ovary or vulva 
in this Bee, becaufe I was in the country and 
had not all my infiruments at hand, and be- 
caufe I did not take the vulva out of the 
hinder parts of the body, fearing left I fhould 
hurt any.of the parts which I thought necef- 
fary to examine. However, I faw very di- 
tinctly that the excretory duct of the eggs, 
Tab. XIX. fig. 111. f; where it approaches to 
the laft ring of the body, dilates itfelf into a 
mufcular globule, and then growing narrower, 
at length becomes again wider and more mem- 
branous ; but I could not profecute this inquiry 
any further, becaufe I defigned to keep unhurt 
the poifon bag, which is fituated in that part, 
together with fome particular mufcles that be- 
long to the feveral parts of the fling. In an: 
other female I thought I obferved that the ori- 
fice of the vulva, when the Bee lay on its 
belly, opened under the fling in the laft ring 
of the abdomen, and that it is very difficult to 
penetrate into this orifice, unlefs the parts be 
expanded and raifed at the time the Bee is lay- 
ing eggs. I likewife faw the fundament very 
plainly, and its orifice opening above the two 
appendages of the fling: it was placed in rea~ 
lity juft over the fting and the two little parts 
juft now mentioned. I further difcovered that 
the rectum or ftraight gut had a kind of cavity 
there, which was full of red and yellow ex- 
crements, but that the inteftine itfelf was 
formed in the manner exhibited in Tab. XVIII. 
fig. x. letter /. 
I have moreover obferved that thefe two 
obtufe appendages, which the aculeus has as 
it were for ornament oo, are in reality the pro- 
ductions of thofe cartilages, which I have fi- 
gured in Tab. XVIII. fig. 11.// and mm. But 
the true ufe of thefe appendages feemed to me 
to confift in this, to try beforehand whether 
objects be foft or penetrable to the fting, that 
the Bee may not in vain dart its fting againft 
harder bodies, and fpoil it to no purpofe. I 
obferved alfo, that one fide of thefe little parts 
was covered with a cartilaginous integument, 
and fet round with fine hairs, 
Since the fting with all its parts was here in 
the female confiderably larger than in the work- 
ing Bee, I could therefore difcover fome fin- 
gular things about it which I had never ob- 
ferved before. I firft obferved, that the theath 
itfelf of the fting had two thanks, to which 
the thanks of the fting itfelf were clofely ap- 
plied, fo that the latter may by the help of the 
former, be more regularly moved. Thefe 
fhanks of the fheath were in this Bee alfo very 
beautifully bent like the thanks of the iting, 
It is {carce credible how beautiful the ftru@ure 
of thefe is near the theath; for there I ob- 
ferved likewife two {mall parts, which beitig 
at their origin bent into an oval form, had a 
verge or border of a brown full red colour; but 
afterwards acquiring by degrees a paler tinge, 
and uniting in a point, they were on one fide 
articulated with the cartilages before exhibited, 
Tab. XVIII. fig. 1. 2, with which the ex- 
tremities of the joints of the thanks of the 
fting were likewife connected in the upper part. 
The little bone alfo, which I have before de- 
{cribed to be like that in Birds, called fpecillum, 
was obferved to be articulated in the hinder 
part with the cafe or fheath itfelf; but the poi- 
fon du&t paffed there only higher up, and im- 
mediately terminated after it had advanced a 
little way in the fheath. Whether all thefe fe- 
veral particulars be circumftanced in the like 
manner in the working Bee, I have not yet 
examined. 
I further learned from this difleGion, that 
the two little parts fig. 111. 7 77, which I have 
before exhibited in the common Bee, as fituated 
on the outfide of the fhanks of the {ting, were 
here in reality placed on the infide of them. 
I likewife faw very diftinGtly, that the mufclcs 
_ moving 
