The Presence of Spermatozoa in Eggs as Proof that Drones can Develop from Inseminated Eggs of the Honeybee

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Abstract
SUMMARY A search for spermatozoa was made in 411 eggs 1–3 hours old, taken from worker and drone cells. The eggs originated from one naturally mated queen and six sibling-mated queens that laid eggs in worker cells of which 50% were male (drone). Spermatozoa were found in only one out of the 62 eggs taken from drone cells, in those from worker cells the number of spermatozoa ranged from 1 to 8, in proportions 60–65%, 20%, 10%, 2%, 1%, 0·5%, 0·0%, 0·5%. A low percentage of eggs containing only 1–2 spermatozoa was correlated with a high maximum number of spermatozoa in other eggs of the same queen. No relation was found between the number of spermatozoa in the spermatheca (deduced from the amount of semen) and the number in eggs laid by the same queen. Spermatozoa were found in 93·2% of the 295 eggs laid by the sibling-mated queens in worker cells and in 88·9% of the 54 laid by the naturally mated queen. It is concluded, that male larvae in worker cells from eggs laid by the sibling-mated queens must have hatched from eggs into which the spermatozoa had penetrated.

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