Note 708 — LETTER XLII.
Reading edition
Swammerdam, in dissecting the female of Oryctes nasicornis, discovered a blind vessel opening into the vagina, and at the other or inner extremity not terminated by any secretory tube, containing a yellowish matter, that seems analogous to the organ mentioned in the text; and in the hive-bee he found a similar organ covered with air-vessels, which he supposes to be connected with the Colleterium (see above, p. 132.), and which he states to contain a slimy matter. Bibl. Nat. i. 151. b. t. xxx. f. 10. g. 204. b. t. xxix. f. 3. t. Perhaps likewise the organ discovered by M. L. Dufour in Scolia,—which he imagines to belong to the poison-secretor, and which he describes as a sac consisting of a double tunic, the exterior one muscular and the interior membranous, and filled with a blueish-green gelatinous matter (N. Dict. d'Hist. Nat. xxx. 388.)—may be a spermatheca.