THE BEHAVIOR OF THE HONEY BEE IN POLLEN COLLECTING. 



INTRODUCTION". 



While working: npon the problem of wax-scale manipulation dur- 

 ing the summer of 1911 the writer became convinced that the so- 

 called wax shears or pinchers of the worker honey bee have nothing 

 whatever to do with the extraction of the wax scales from their 

 pockets, but rather that they are organs used in loading the pollen 

 from the pollen combs of the hind legs into the corbiculse or pollen 

 baskets (Casteel, 1912). Further observations made at that time dis- 

 closed the exact method by which the hind legs are instrumental in 

 the pollen-loading process and also the way in which the middle legs 

 aid the hind legs in patting down the pollen masses. During the 

 summer of 1912 additional information was secured, more particu- 

 larly that relating to the manner in which pollen is collected upon 

 the body and legs of the bee, how it is transferred to the hind legs, 

 how it is moistened, and finally the method by which it is stored in 

 the hive for future use. In the present paper a complete account will 

 be given of the history of the pollen from the time it leaves the flower 

 until it rests within the cells of the hive. The points of more par- 

 ticular interest in the description of pollen manipulation refer to 

 (1) the movements concerned in gathering the pollen from the 

 flowers upon the body and legs, (2) the method by which the baskets 

 of the hind legs receive the loads which they carry to the hive, and 

 (3) the manner in which the bee moistens pollen and renders it suf- 

 ficiently cohesive for packing and transportation. 



THE STRUCTURES CONCERNED IN THE MANIPULATION OF 



POLLEN. 



The hairs which cover the body and appendages of the bee are of 

 the utmost importance in the process of pollen gathering. For the 

 purposes of this account these hairs may be classified roughly as 

 (1) branched hairs and (2) unbranched hairs, the latter including 

 both long, slender hairs and stiff, spinelike structures. 



Of these two classes the branched hairs are the more numerous. 

 They make up the hairy coat of the head, thorax, and abdomen, with 

 the exception of short sensory spines, as those found upon the an- 

 tenna^ and perhaps elsewhere, and the stiff unbranched hairs which 



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