ACTION OF HIND LEGS. 



17 



basket receives a small contribution of pollen, is being completed, the 

 right leg is lowered and the pecten of this leg is brought into contact 

 with, the pollen combs of the left planta, over which they scrape as 

 the left leg is raised, thus depositing pollen upon the lateral surfaces 

 of the pecten spines of the right leg. (See fig. 7.) 



Right and left baskets thus receive alternately successive contribu- 

 tions of pollen from the planta of the opposite leg. These loading 

 movements are executed wdth great rapidity, the legs rising and fall- 

 ing with a pump-like motion. A very small amount of pollen is 

 loaded at each stroke and many strokes are required to load the 

 baskets completely. 



If one attempts to obtain, from the literature of apiculture and 

 zoology, a knowledge of the method by which the pollen baskets 



Fig. 7. — A bee upon the wing, showing the manner in which the hind legs are held during 

 the basket-loading process. Pollen is being scraped by the pecten spines of the right 

 leg from the pollen combs of the left hind planta. (Original.) 



themselves are loaded, he is immediately confused by the diversity of 

 the accounts available. The average textbook of zoology follows 

 closely Cheshire's (188G) description in which he says that " the legs 

 are crossed, and the metatarsus naturally scrapes its comb face on the 

 upper edge of the opposite tibia in the direction from the base of the 

 combs toward their tips. These upper hairs * * * are nearly 

 straight, and pass between the comb teeth. The pollen, as removed, 

 is caught b}' the bent-over hairs, and secured. Each scrape adds to 

 the mass, until the face of the joint is more than covered, and the 

 hairs just embrace the pellet." Franz (1900) states that (translated) 

 " the final loading of the baskets is accomplished by the crossing over 

 of the hind-tarsal segments, which rub and press upon each other." 

 Many other observers and textbook w^riters evidently believed that 

 the hind legs were crossed in the loading process. 

 61799°— Bull. 121—12 3 



