able. 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.

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 laminae, 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