20 BEHAVIOR OF HONEY BEE IN POLLEN COLLECTING. 



or distal edge of the corbicula and is slowly covering the floor of this 

 receptacle. (See fig. 8, 5, ^, and d.) In many instances the suc- 

 cessive contributions remain for a time fairly separate, the whole 

 mass being marked by furrows transverse to the long axis of the tibia. 



Sladen (1912, b) notes the interesting fact that in those rather 

 exceptional cases when a bee gathers pollen from more than one 

 species of flowers the resulting mass Avithin the corbicula wnll shoAV 

 a stratification parallel to the distal end, a condition which could 

 result only from the method of loading here indicated. 



As the pollen within the basket increases in amount it bulges out- 

 ward, and projects downward below the lower edge of the basket. 

 It is held in position by the long hairs which fringe the lateral sides 

 of the basket, and its shape is largely determined by the form of 

 these hairs and the direction in which they extend. When the basket 

 is fully loaded the mass of pollen extends laterally on both sides of 

 the tibia, but projects much farther on the posterior side, for on this 

 side the bounding row of hairs extends outward, while on the anterior 

 edge the hairs are more curved, folding upward and over the basket. 

 As the mass increases in thickness by additions from below it is held 

 in position by these long hairs which edge the basket. They are 

 pushed outward and many of them become partly embedded in the 

 pollen as it is pushed up from below. When the pollen grains are 

 small and the wdiole mass is well moistened the marks made by some 

 of the hairs will be seen on the sides of the load. (See fig. 9, a.) 

 These scratches are also transverse in direction and they show that 

 the mass has been increased by additions of pollen pushed up from 

 below. 



Even a superficial examination of a heaviW laden basket shows 

 liie fallacy of the supposition that the long lateral fringing hairs are 

 used to comb out the pollen from the brushes of either the hind or 

 middle legs by the crossing of these legs over the lateral edges of the 

 baskets. They are far from sufficiently stiff to serve this purpose, 

 and their position with relation to the completed load shows con- 

 clusively that they could not be used in the final stages of the loading 

 process, for the pollen mass has completely covered many of them 

 and its outer surface extends far beyond their ends. They serve 

 merely to hokl the pollen in place and to allow the load to project 

 beyond the margins of the tibia. 



The auricle plays a very essential part in the process of loading 

 the basket. This structure comprises the whole of the flattened 

 proximal surface of the planta, except the joint of articulation itself, 

 and it extends outward in a posterior direction a little beyond the 

 remaining plantar edge. The surface of the auricle is covered over 

 with many blunt, short spines and its lateral margin is bounded by 

 a row of short rather pliable hairs, branched at their ends. Wlien 



