Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/624

 D R O

or male bee ; for the extremity of that ring is not open, but abfolutely clofed ; and the aperture of the anus is in the un- der part of that ling about its middle. On prefling the body of this bee, there is alfo forced out at this part, the penis ; this is a (mall and flender flefhy body, contained between two horns of a fomewhat harder fubftance, which join at their bafe,but gradually part afunder as they are continued in length. When the preffure is continued, there are finally thruft out at the fame aperture, a part of the internal apparatus of the feminal veffels, and in fine, there is ufually fome of the milky liquor extravafated ; but this feems rather to be let out by the burftmg of a veffel, than by any natural paffage. Thefe parts found in all the drones, and none of them in any other bees except thefe, feem to prove very evidently, the dif- ference of fex i but there is one thing extremely remarkable in regard to ihem, which is, that tho' they appear fo evident- ly on being forced out of the body bypreffure, yet it is very difficult to find them in it on difTeftiun. The caufe feem-, to be their (welling when expofed to the air; and Swammerdam fuppofes, that to this puipofe they are furnifhed with a great number of tiachea;, which readily admit the air as foon as ever they are expofed to it.

It is no uncommon thing for a hive to afford only one female bee, with five or fix hundred, or even a thoufand Drones. The queen feems in this cafe, to have a very numorous ferag- lio; yetfo it is, that in the midft of fo many males, and tho' fee is loaded with fuch an immenfe number of eggs, all which muft be impregnated by the male, no one ever faw, or at leaft no author who has treated on this fubject, has men- tioned his having feen the queen and any of her ieragho in co- pulation.

This however is no fort of proof that the thing is not done, for without giving the female a fenfe of moderty or fhame to govern her actions, we may obferve, that fhe always loves the inner receffes of her habitation ; and that as her ufual re- fidence is among the center of the combs, there is no reafon to fuppofe, that fhe would leave that place, and crawl to the edge on purpofe to fhew herfelf to the fpectator in that aft. We are acquainted with no other method of animal genera- tion, but by the copulation of male and female in any of the fly kinds ; and as analogy is the beft of all methods of argu- ing in cafes of this kind, it is to be obferved, that there are other infefts of the nature of the bees, which we are well af- fured ufe copulation in the common way. Thus the wafps and the common great humble bees are in their fwarms com- pofed of males, females, and labouring creatures, which are of no fex at all ; and both the drones among the wafps, and thofe among the humble bees, have been feen in copulation with the females of their kinds.

The great number of males in proportion to the females in the fwarms of wafps, takes oft* the argument againft the male bees copulating with the female, from the fuppofed inequali- ty of their numbers ; and it is to be added, that we are not to wonder at our not feeing the bees in this action, when we confider that befidcs the obftruftion which the combs give our fight, the female bee is ufually fo covered with a clufter of the working bees, that (he is ufually hid from our infpeftion in her travels about the edges of the combs by this croud of attendants.

Many of the antients as well as moderns, have fuppofed that the eggs of the female bee, are not impregnated with the male fperm, while in the body of the creature; but that they are depofited unimpregnated, in the cells, and that the male afterwards ejects the male fperm on them, as they lie in the cells; in the fame manner as the generation of fifhes is fup- pofed to be performed by the males impregnating the fpawn after it is caff, out by the female. But this is evidently proved erroneous in the cafe of the bees, as it ufually happens, that during the whole time of the eggs lying in the cells, there is not one male bee alive in the place.

Swammerdam whofe obfervation of the hives was too accu- rate to let him fall into this miftake, and who knew very well, that this fort of impregnation, was only the erroneous guefs of perfons little skilled in nature, had recourfe even to a more ftrange and ridiculous fource of impregnation, than this: he fuppofes, that the female never copulates with the male, but that the effluvia of his body in palling by her, ren- ders the eggs within her capable of producing yonng ones, and fuppofes according to this doftrine, that nature fends the vaft numbers of males to every female, that in the paflage of the latter thro' the hive, thefe meetings on occafions of impregnation, might be more frequent. What has been obferved by Mr. Reaumur in regard to the copulation of the Drones with the female bee, feems to give all the part of the invitations and carefl.es to the female, the males being very indolent and inactive ; and this indeed is very neceffary ; for Ihould the males he the aggreflbrs, m a place where there are a thoufand of them to one female ; that creature could have no refpite, and could neither teed nor lay her eggs ; but on the other hand, as they are indolent and inactive, fhe lives as quiet a life as (lie pleafes among them, and only iingles out fuch as file likes occafionally for her purpofes.

DRO

M. Reaumur contrived to get a female into a box, and put. ting a male to her, found that all the carefies and blandifh ments, which the common bees pay'd to her, fh e returned abundantly to the male; fhe ftroaked him with her trunk and offered him honey to feed on out of her mouth; and this kindnefs for a long time had no effect upon him ; at lenath however, he grew more active and brisk, and the female then got upon his back and bending downward, the hinder pare of the body feemed to receive into it the male part ; the ftruc- ture of which renders it indeed neceffary, that the creatures Ihould be in this pofture ; for it is bent into the ftiape of a hook, and the point turned upwards, to that it would be im- poflible fur the male ever to introduce it into her body, if he got upon her in the ordinary way. The time that the bees remained in copulation, if this junction could be fa called was but very fhort, and the female often repeating it, the male ufually died at laft in the operation. The common hen will often lay eggs daily for along time to- gether, and in the fame manner the female bee lays every day for many months. But there is this great difference, that the hen in order to be thus fecundated, muft live with a cock all the time, and be often in copulation with him. Where- as the female bee continues laying almoft the whole year round by only having had the males with her during a few weeks. When the fhort time in which the mule bees are ne- ceffary in the hive is over, the labourers all fall upon them, and produce a cruel flaughter among them. They leave not fo much as one alive, and every morning carry out of their habitation, the carcafles of the flaughter of the former day's butchery. Nay they do not fpare even the young ones In the worm or nymph ftate, but fearch out all the large cells which they had before made for their reception, and finding they will not hereafter be neceflary to them, deftroy them in this defencelefs ftate. Thefe flaughters happen at different feafons of the year accordirg to the different accidents of the fwarm ; They are always eafily known by the numbers of dead carca- fes found about the hives, and happen ufually in June or July, tho' fometimes later; for a fwarm not received into the hive till May, will let the males live till Auguft. Reau?nur y Hift. Infeft. T. 10, p. 128, 149, 157. DRONE-^',orB£Ey5y.,a two wing'd fly, 16 extremely like thecom- mon bee as to be at fii ft fight not eafily diftinguiihable from it. The diftinction between the two infects however, befide the dif- ferent number of" their wings, is that the bee has a fomewhat longer and lefs thick body, and the head is proportionably much fmaller, than that of the fly which fo much refembles them. The bee fly alfo ever carries its wings parallel in their pofition, but without its body $ whereas the bee itfelf ufu- ally carries its wings croffed on the back, and covers its body with them; this is not however ah invariable polture with the wings of the bee, tho' it is the moft frequent one. The bee fly is found among the flowers, as is the bee, and tho* it ga- thers no wax, it has a trunk by means of which it fucks the honey.

The trunk, by means of which thejly is enabled to do this, has no teeth, and confequently thejly belongs to Mr. Reaumur's firft general clafs of the two-winged j#« ; and the form of its body, which is fhort and flat, determines it to be of his firft fubor- dinate genus of that clafs. This is properly a feparate genus of files, of which there are many fpecies. Mr. Ray has de- fcribed fix, and a cjpfe obfervation will enable us to add much to that number. The different fpecies vary extremely from one another in fize. The fmaller of them are not fo large as the common blue flefh-/?y, the others equal or exceed this fly in fize. They differ alfo in colour in their different fhades of brown ; and fbme of them have fpots of a fine deep black, and others of a fine glofly yellow, which make them very diftinguifhable from bees.

The moft lingular and obfervable part of the life of this in- fect is that which it paffes without wings, and in form of a ^-worm and nymph. The general exterior form of the fiy- worms of this genus has been well enough known to the ge- nerality of naturalilrs; and Goedait, Merian, and Albinus were well acquainted with them fo far; but they did .not give themfelves the trouble of a farther examination, and were not fenhble that thefe worms had many obfervable things to offer to our con fide rati on.

The matter among which they are found is that of all others the moft offenfive and difagreeable. They are of the clafs of thofe with variable heads; but their great diftinction from all others is their having a long flender tail. This at different times the worm makes of very different lengths, but in its fhorteft it is longer than the body of the creature. It is round, fmooth, and at times extremely fmall at the extremi- ty, and fometimes much refembles the tail of a rat ; whence the whole clafs of thefe worms are well diftinguifhed by the name of rat-tail'd worms.

Nothing is more vague than our manner of gueffing at the ufe of the parts of animals at firft fight. Nature, we know, gives them no organ in vain, and therefore we are to find the ufe for which they were given. Goedart gueffed thefe long tails were given to this clafs of worms to enable them to crawl

along