The female organs consist principally of the ovaries, the oviducts, the sperm-reservoir, and the ovipositor. In the ovaries the eggs are generated, and remain till rendered fit by impregnation, and the other circumstances necessary for their maturation, to pass through the oviducts. According to Mr. Hunter, what are called ovaries are really ducts; the eggs therefore are not formed as in other animals, in a cluster on the back, but in those ducts, of which there are six on each side. When full of eggs, they form a kind of quadrangle; these six ducts uniting on each side into one duct, this latter enters a duct common to both sides, which may be called the _vagina_ or _ovipositor_. The common _oviduct_ is the canal through which the eggs pass from the ovaries as they are called, to the ovipositor. The _sperm-reservoir_ is the organ which, according to Herold, receives the _impregnating sperm_ of the drone, the _modus operandi_ of which we are unacquainted with. In the hive-bee and in some other insects, the influence of this sperm continues so long a time, and through so many generations, as almost to exceed belief. (_Vide_ page 31). This led +Dr. Haighton+ to entertain the opinion that actual contact betwixt the male sperm and the egg was not necessary, but that impregnation was effected by some unknown sympathetic influence. +Messrs. Kirby+ and +Spence+ have recourse to the old doctrine of an _aura seminalis_ being all that is required to vivify the egg, and which they think may be retained for a long period. Upon this subject I have entered at some length in page 25 _et seq._ The _ovipositor_ places the eggs in their appropriate situations, and is an instrument of most curious structure. It consists of a long tube, or rather several tubes, retractile within each other, like the pieces of a telescope, and serves not only to convey the extruded eggs to the place of their destination, but acts also as a sheath for _the sting_, having a sharp point which makes the first impression when the creature intends to use its sting,--indeed it appears to be itself the sting. It has a slit near its extremity, through which the sting and poison are allowed to pass at the time of stinging. Some insects have occasion to bore a hole in wood, or other hard substances, to obtain a proper nidus for their eggs; the ovipositor is their operating instrument, and will either saw or bore a passage to the desired place. Thus it appears that this curiously complex apparatus, which in the bee is used both as a weapon of defence and offence, is a hollow horny tube or scabbard, inclosing two bearded darts, which can be thrust a short way beyond the sheath, though the whole appears to the naked eye like the solid point of the minutest needle.