Morgan, Thomas Hunt, Experimental zoölogy

(New York : London :  The Macmillan Company ; Macmillan & Co., Ltd.,  1907.)

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CHAPTER  XXIII

THE  LIFE-CYCLE   OF  SOME  HYMENOPTEROUS  INSECTS

It has been pointed out that in some cases parthenogenetic
generations alternate with sexual ones, the last parthenogenetic
generation giving rise both to male and female sexual forms.
In other cases, unfertilized eggs may produce only one kind of
individual, usually the male, and in a few cases this may be the
regular method of production of the male sex. The best-known
case of this sort is that of the honey bee.

The queen bee leaves the hive, a few days after emerging from
the royal cell, for her nuptial flight. She is followed by one or
more drones, and union takes place in the air. Her receptacle
becomes filled with sperm, and this supply lasts her for the rest
of her life, that may extend over three or four years. The
spermatozoa must remain alive during all this time, yet the
oldest produce the same effect, so far as sex is concerned, as do
the youngest. The receptacle, or spermatheca as it is called,
opens by a short tube into the oviduct. It has a muscular
wall, and a few of the spermatozoa are supposed to be squeezed
out as the egg passes the opening — at least in the case of eggs
that are to become fertilized.

A queen may produce half a million eggs in the course of her
life, and must receive, therefore, at least as many spermatozoa,
and probably more, since it is not improbable that several or
many are set free for each egg. The eggs are deposited in the
brood cells or chambers of the comb that have been prepared by
the workers. The queen thrusts her abdomen to the bottom of
each cell, and deposits there an egg, that is attached at the end
opposite to the micropyle, or opening through which the sper¬
matozoon enters.    There are three kinds of brood  chambers:

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