Swammerdam, and after him M. de Reaumur have admired this mechanism; they have thought, indeed, that the return should be occasioned by the effect of the air inflating the parts, and they supposed that the male organs proceeded from the body, and returned during copulation, the same as when forced out by pressure. Following their example, we have pressed them from the body of many males; we have a thousand times witnessed this wonderful return, which they detail with the greatest precision; but our males never survived the operation. We have seen, as M. de Reaumur, a few males protrude them spontaneously, even some of the parts inverted, but at that moment they died, and were unable to retract the parts which a pressure, most likely accidental, had forced out. Thus it is improbable that the male organs protrude by turning out of themselves in copulation; and the details which follow prove incontestibly, that it is otherwise. Had not Swammerdam been prejudiced with this opinion, he would have seen that the lenticular body can proceed from the body in erection without reversing itself; he could have proportioned the [tortuous] canal, which he calls the root of the penis; he would have seen that, at certain times, it can be sufficiently extended to allows the lenticular substance to protrude; he would have discovered the real use of the scaly plates; he would have explained that of the canal k, of the plaited pallet q, and the movements of all these parts, more admirable perhaps than the inversion which he was the first to observe.
Our observations incontestibly prove copulation. The portion of the males found engaged in the body of our queens, hitherto called the lenticular substance, may be denominated a penis both from its position and use. The same surface is presented by it in the queen as in the body of the male, which is proved by the position of the laminæ, e. e. attached to the interior of the penis, when found in the queen. It is evident, if the supposed inversion took place, the laminæ would be found within the posterior part of the penis; and we should see them through its membrane, by their concave side, instead of which the convex surface is presented when in the vulva of females, the same as in the body of the males. But what is the use of these laminæ? From their figure, hardness, relative position with respect to each other, and their situation at the extremity of the penis, we cannot doubt they are real pincers. However, to ascertain the fact, we found it necessary to see their position, and that of the penis itself in the females. For this purpose, we prevented some of the queens from extracting the parts left by the impregnating males, and by dissection we discovered that the laminæ were pincers as we had conjectured.
The penis was situated under the sting of the queens, and pressed against the upper region of the belly. It was supported by the posterior end, against the extremity of the vagina, or excretory canal. There we were sensible of the motion and use of the scaly pieces. Their extremities were separated a little more than in the male, and pressed between them some of the female parts below the excretory canal. The extreme minuteness of these parts prevented us from distinguishing them clearly, but the effort necessary to separate and remove the penis from the female, satisfied us of the use of these laminæ.
Inspecting a male from above, the convex side of the plates, e. e. is presented, and the summit of the angle formed by their origin. When in the body of the female, they are in the inverse position; what was above in the male is now below, and the extremity of the pincers directed upwards. This makes us suspect that in copulation the male mounts on the back of the female, but we are far from asserting it positively. It may be asked whether that part we call the penis, is the sole part introduced into the female during copulation? We have carefully investigated this, and can affirm, that it is the only one of all those described by M. de Reaumur, which has been found in our females. But we have discovered a new part that escaped both him and Swammerdam, which appears from the following experiment.
Separating the lenticular substance from the excretory canal, where it was attached, we drew along with it a white body, adhering by one extremity, and having the other engaged in the vagina. Towards the end of the lentil, where the substance adhered, it appeared cylindrical, then it swelled, and again contracted, to dilate anew in a greater degree than at first; afterwards it contracted and terminated in a point. A powerful magnifier was required to see all this. When pulled from the lenticular body, the part was commonly broke, and also when extracted by the queens from themselves. The figure and situation seemed to authorise our considering it the penis itself, and the lenticular body only an appendage. But the last queen we examined exhibited a peculiarity that induced us to doubt the fact, and led us to suspect that this body is nothing else than the seminal fluid itself, moulded and coagulated in the vagina, and which from its viscosity adheres to the lenticular substance, and accompanies it when separated from the vagina. In this queen was found a little extravasated white matter, near the opening of the vagina. This, though at first liquid, soon coagulated in the air as the seminal fluid of drones does. In separating the lenticular body from the vagina, we drew along with it a thread which broke near the lentil; and seemed of too little consistence for the penis of a male. The lenticular bodies, found in our queens, appeared larger than in the males we dissected, and we have remarked with M. de Reaumur, that these parts are not of equal size in every male.
Experiment 1.—On the tenth of July, we set successively at liberty three virgin queens four or five days old. Two flew away several times; their absence was short and fruitless. The third profited better by her liberty; she departed thrice; the first and second time her absence was short; but the third lasted thirty-five minutes. She returned in a very different state; and in such as allowed no doubt of her employment, for she exhibited the part of a male that had rendered her a mother. We seized her wings with one hand, and in the other received the lenticular body, of which she had disengaged herself with her claws. The posterior part was armed with two pincers, e. e. shelly and elastic, which could be drawn asunder, and then resumed their original position. Towards the anterior part of the lentil appeared the fragment of the root of the penis; this canal had broke half a line from the lenticular body. We allowed the queen to enter her habitation, and adapted the entrance so that she could not leave it unknown to us.
On the seventeenth we found no eggs in the hive; the queen was as slender as the first day; therefore the male, with which she had copulated, had not impregnated her eggs. She was again set at liberty; after twice departing, she returned with evidence of a second copulation. We then confined her, and the eggs she afterwards laid proved that the second copulation had been more successful than the first and that there are some males more fit for impregnating queens than others. However, it is very rare that the first copulation is inefficient; we have only seen two that required it twice; all the rest were impregnated by the first.
Experiment 2.—On the eighteenth we put at liberty a virgin queen twenty-seven days old, she departed twice. Her second absence was twenty-eight minutes, and she returned with the proofs of copulation. We prevented her from entering, and put her under a glass to see how she would disengage the male organs. This she was unable to accomplish, having only the table and sides of the glass for support; therefore we introduced a bit of comb; thus providing the same conveniences as are in a hive. Fixing herself on it by the first four legs, she stretched out the two last, and extending them along her belly seemed to press it between them. At length introducing her claws between the two parts of the last ring, she seized the lenticular body, and dropped it on the table. The posterior part was provided with shelly pincers, under which and in the same direction was a grey cylindrical body. The end farthest from the lentil was sensibly thicker than that adhering to it, and terminated in a point. This point was double, and open like the bill of a bird, which induces us to think the body was broken, a conjecture supported by the following experiment.
Experiment 3.—On the nineteenth we set at liberty a queen four days old; she departed twice; her first absence was short; the second lasted thirty minutes, and then she returned with the marks of fecundation. As we wished to obtain the male organs entire, it was necessary to prevent the queen from breaking them by extracting them with her feet; we therefore suddenly killed her, and cut off the last rings in order to lay the vulva open. But though deprived of animation, so much life remained in these parts that the lenticular body was thrown out spontaneously. Under the pincers appeared the remnant of a cylindrical body which had broken near the origin and remained in the female. This body was very small at the origin; it afterwards sensibly enlarged; next contracting by degrees, it terminated in a sharp point. We found the point engaged up to the gland in the excretory canal, and the rest in the vulva.
Experiment 4.—We set two virgin queens at liberty on the twentieth. The first had been abroad on the preceding days, but the scarcity of males prevented her from being previously fecundated. She returned with the organs of a male. We tried to prevent her from extracting them, but she did this so expeditiously with her feet, that we could not accomplish it. She was then allowed to enter the hive.