Editing Jan Swammerdam (section)

===Research on bees===
[[File:Reproductive organs of the bee. Wellcome L0000176.jpg|thumb|right|Swammerdam's drawing of the queen bee's reproductive organs, as observed through the microscope.]]

Since ancient times it had been asserted that the queen bee was male, and ruled the hive. In 1586 [[Luis Mendez de Torres]] had first published the finding that the hive was ruled by a female, but Torres had maintained that she produced all other bees in the colony through a "seed". In 1609 [[Charles Butler (beekeeper)|Charles Butler]] had recorded the sex of drones as male, but he wrongly believed that they mated with worker bees. In ''Biblia naturae'' the first visual proof was published that his contemporaries had mistakenly identified the [[queen bee]] as male.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Dancing Bees: Karl Von Frisch and the Discovery of the Honeybee Language|author = [[Tania Munz]] |publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=2016|isbn=9780226020860|pages=164}}</ref> Swammerdam also provided evidence that the queen bee is the sole mother of the colony.<ref name="Eva Crane 1999 569">{{Cite book|title=The World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting|author = Eva Crane |publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=1999|isbn=9780415924672|pages=569}}</ref> 

Swammerdam had engaged in five intense years of [[beekeeping]]. He had found that [[drone (bee)|drones]] were masculine, and had no [[stinger]]. Swammerdam identified the worker bees as "natural [[eunuchs]]" because he was unable to detect [[ovaries]] in them, but described them as nearer to the nature of the female. Swammerdam had produced a drawing of the queen bee's reproductive organs, as observed through the microscope.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Dancing Bees: Karl Von Frisch and the Discovery of the Honeybee Language|author = [[Tania Munz]] |publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=2016|isbn=9780226020860|pages=169}}</ref> The drawing Swammerdam produced of the internal anatomy of the queen bee was only published in 1737.<ref name="Eva Crane 1999 569"/> His drawing of the [[honeycomb]] geometry was first published in ''Biblia naturae'', but had been referenced by [[Giacomo Filippo Maraldi]] in his 1712 book.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting|author = Eva Crane |publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=1999|isbn=9780415924672|pages=564}}</ref> Details of Swammerdam's research on bees had already been published elsewhere because he had shared his findings with other scientists in correspondence. Among others, Swammerdam's research had been referenced by [[Nicolas Malebranche]] in 1688.<ref name="ReferenceC"/>