26 INSECTS 



larva feeds is a common occurrence, and the larva, 

 when hatched, finds surromiding it sufficient nourish- 

 ment to bring it to maturity. In the social forms, 

 matters have developed yet further, and the larva does 

 not even feed itself: it is fed by the mother or a nurse, 

 and its food is prepared beforehand; either a mixture 

 of pollen and honey, or fragments of insects mixed 

 with salivary secretions of the adult. And so bees need 

 pollen as food for their larvae, and upon the mothers or 

 females falls the burden of gathering and storing it. 

 For convenience we consider as females those sexually 

 undeveloped forms in the social species which we know 

 as workers, and in that sense all the female bees are 

 supplied, not only with gathering hairs, but with some 

 sort of structures to carry the pollen. In the common 

 hive-bee the inside of the first joint of the hind foot or 

 tarsus is modified into a curry-comb-like structure for 

 cleaning the pollen grains out of the hair, and the out- 

 side of the hind tibia is provided with a fringe of long 

 hair forming a basket into which the pollen is packed 

 for transportation. In other bees other parts of the 

 legs, of the breast, or even of the abdomen are provided 

 with means of transporting pollen loads, and so after 

 a visit to the first flower the bee is fitted for its mission 

 of fructification, which occurs as a mere incident in the 

 gathering. 



There is no group among the insects that is more 

 interesting as a subject for study than that containing 

 the bees. Not only are the structures of adaptation 

 very beautifully developed for their purpose; but their 

 life history is often of intense interest. On the honey 

 bee alone we have not only the vestiture, the pollen 

 carrier and the brushes that clean out the pollen from 

 the hair; we have, in addition, the antenna-cleaner 

 on the fore leg and the complicated mouth parts. The 



