320 LIFE STORIES OF AUSTRALL\N INSECTS. 



ing removed from the pollen basket. (Plate 26, 

 Fig. 3-) 



The hind legs carry the pollen basket (Plate 26, 

 Figs. 4, 5, 6.) The tibia forms this basket— it is a 

 flat surface with stout hairs on the edges which 

 stand well up to keep in the pollen. On the under 

 side of the pollen basket are a few stiff hairs, but 

 the upper surface which carries the pollen is smooth, 



When one sees a bee in a pumpkin flower, or on 

 a sunflower or cosmos, one can understand how 

 necessary these cleaning instruments are, for the 

 bee is often covered all over with pollen. On 

 reaching home the middle legs lever out the pollen 

 masses in the baskets, and each mass is passed on 

 to the front legs and then placed in the cell. Note 

 how bees often rest on a plant and clean off the 

 pollen from its head and body and place it in its 

 pollen basket. 



The sting of the worker is situated at the end 

 of the abdomen and consists of poison darts with 

 poison ducts connected with poison bags. There 

 is a wonderful mechanism for sending the poison 

 down the ducts to run into the wound made by 

 the points of the darts. Only queens and workers 

 have stings. The queen uses her sting to attack 

 other queens which may hatch out in the hive. 

 Should two queens hatch out, they usually fight 

 till one is demolished. When a new queen has 

 safely returned to the hive, she may go round and 

 destroy any queen pupae which may be in the hive, 

 and the workers in this case do not interfere. 



