The second queen departed twice. Her first absence was short as usual; the second lasted about half an hour, and she returned impregnated. Having killed her as suddenly as possible, we laid open the vulva. The lenticular body was deposited as in every queen hitherto dissected; the pincers were situated under the excretory canal. Some parts not easily distinguishable were pressed between the [laminæ], and their office seemed to consist in forcing the extremity of the lentil to approach the orifice of the vagina, and apply so forcibly to it that some exertion was necessary to separate them. We previously examined them, with a very powerful magnifier. Then a peculiarity which had escaped us was perceptible. In drawing out the lenticular body, there proceeded from the vagina a minute part, v. adhering to the posterior end of the lentil, and situated below the plates. It spontaneously retracted into the lentil, like the horns of a snail. It appeared white, very short, and cylindrical. Under the pincers was a little half coagulated seminal fluid at the bottom of the vulva. Though much could be expressed, there was none pure; it was almost liquid, but soon coagulated, and formed a whitish inorganic mass. This observation carefully made removed all our doubts, and demonstrated that what we had taken for the penis of males was nothing but the seminal fluid, which had coagulated and assumed the interior figure of the vagina. The only hard part introduced by the male, was the short cylindrical point which retracted into the lentil, when we separated it. Its situation and office prove that it is there we must look for the issue of the seminal fluid, if we can hope to find an opening, when not engaged in copulation.
We found this new part in the first drone we dissected. By pressing the seminal vessels, the white liquid then escaped downwards to the root of the penis r. and into the lenticular body, l. i. which became sensibly swoln. We prevented the fluid from returning, and by new pressure of the lentil forced it to advance. However, none escaped, but we saw at the posterior end of the lenticular body, and under the scaly pincers, a small white cylindrical substance, the same in appearance as that we had found engaged in the vagina of the queen. This part retracted on pressure, and then returned.
I request you, Sir, while perusing this letter, to inspect the figure of the male sexual organs published by M. de Reaumur, and which are copied here. The descriptions are most accurate, and present a just idea of the situation of these parts when in the male's body. We readily conceive how they appear when left in the female by copulation. This detail will sufficiently indicate the situation and figure of the new part I have discovered.
I suspect that the males perish after losing their sexual organs. But why does nature exact so great a sacrifice? This is a mystery which I cannot pretend to unveil. I am unacquainted with any analogous fact in natural history, but as there are two species of insects whose copulation can take place only in the air, namely, ephemeræ and ants, it would be extremely interesting to discover whether their males also lose their sexual parts, in the same circumstances, and whether, as with drones, enjoyment in their flight is the prelude of death.
FINIS.
[O] Memoires sur les Abeilles, p. 450.
[P] Such long and minute descriptions can be very imperfectly translated; indeed they are unintelligible without microscopical inspections of the parts themselves.—T.
ANALYTICAL INDEX.
| Description of a hive invented by the author | page [4] |
| Swammerdam's opinion on the fecundation of bees | [8] |
| Sentiments of M. de Reaumur | [10] |
| Mr Debraw's opinion | [11] |
| Hattorf's opinion | [19] |
| Difficulty of discovering the mode of impregnation | [22] |
| Experiments on the subject | [23] |
| Suggestions by M. Bonnet | [34] |
| The queen is impregnated by copulation, which never takes place within the hive | [41] |
| Experiments on artificial fecundation have not succeeded | [42] |
| The male loses the sexual organs in copulation | [43] |
| Regarded impregnation affects the ovaries of the queen | [45] |
| She then lays no eggs but those producing males | [47] |
| One copulation impregnates all the eggs the queen will lay in two years | [54] |
| Fecundity of a queen | [63] |
| Common bees do not transport the queen's eggs | [66] |
| They sometimes eat them | [69] |
| Eggs producing males are sometimes laid in royal cells | [71] |
| Common worms may be converted into queens | [77] |
| Operations of the bees when this is done | [78] |
| Fertile workers sometimes exist | [89] |
| They lay none but the eggs of males | [96] |
| All common bees are originally females | [98] |
| Receiving the royal food while larvæ, expands their ovaries | [105] |
| Mutual enmity of queens | [110] |
| The common bees seem to promote their combats | [117] |
| A guard is constantly at the entrance of the hive | [123] |
| What ensues when bees lose their queen | [126] |
| Effects of introducing a stranger queen | [128] |
| Massacre of the males | [132] |
| It never ensues in hives deprived of queens | [135] |
| A plurality of queens is never tolerated | [142] |
| The queen bee is oviparous | [149] |
| Bees seem occasionally to repose | [150] |
| Interval between production of the egg and the perfect state of bees | [151] |
| Mode of spinning the coccoon | [153] |
| That of the queen is open at one end | [154] |
| The size of the bees is not affected by that of the cells | [167] |
| The old queen always conducts the first swarm | [173] |
| But never before depositing eggs in the royal cells | [177] |
| Singular effect of a sound emitted by perfect queens | [189] |
| The instinct of bees is affected during the period of swarming | [208] |
| Queens are liberated from their cells according to their age | [214] |
| The bees probably judge of this by the sound emitted | [217] |
| Young queens conducting swarms are virgins | [221] |
| The conduct of bees to old queens is peculiar | [224] |
| Retarded impregnation affects the instinct of queens | [241] |
| Amputation of the antennæ produces singular effects | [245] |
| Advantages of the leaf hive | [253] |
| It renders the bees tractable | [256] |
| They may there be forced to work in wax | [264] |
| Uniform distance between the combs | [265] |
| Natural heat of bees | [269] |
| Distance to which they fly | [271] |
| Appendix | [273] |
| Anatomical observations on the sexual organs of bees | [276] |
| Experiments proving the copulation of the queen | [290] |
Alex. Smellie, Printer.