26 BEHAVIOK OF HONEY BEE IN POLLEN COLLECTING. 



passed over the anricle, has been pressed upward and squeezed be- 

 tween the auricle and the end of the tibia and the pollen mass above, 

 and by this compression has lost some of its fluid, which runs down 

 over the auricle and onto the combs of the planta. It is not necessary 

 to invoke any special method by which these areas receive their 

 moisture. The compressing action of the auricle squeezing heavily 

 moistened pollen upward into the basket is entirely sufficient to 

 account for the abundance of sticlry fluid found in the neighborhood 

 of each hind tibio-tarsal joint. As has been noted, the brushes of 

 the forelegs acquire moisture directly by stroking over the proboscis 

 and by handling extremely moist pollen taken from the mouthparts. 

 The middle-leg brushes become moist by contact with the foreleg and 

 hind-leg brushes, probably also by touching the mouthparts them- 

 selves, and by passing moist pollen backward. The hairy surface of 

 the breast is moistened by contact with the fore and mid leg brushes 

 and with the moist pollen which they bear. 



The problem of the method of pollen moistening is soniewhat more 

 complicated in the case of flowers which furnish an excessive supply. 

 Under such conditions the entire ventral surface of the collecting bee 

 becomes liberally sprinkled with pollen grains which either will be 

 removed and dropped or will be combed from the bristles and branch- 

 ing hairs, kneaded into masses, transferred, and loaded. The ques- 

 tion naturally arises whether the movements here are the same as 

 when the plant yields but a small amount of pollen which is collected 

 by the mouthparts and anterior legs. In the opinion of the writer 

 they are essentially the same, except for the addition of cleansing 

 movements, executed chiefly by the middle and hind legs for the col- 

 lection of pollen which has fallen upon the thorax, upon the abdomen, 

 and upon the legs themselves. Indeed it is questionable as to just 

 how much of this plentiful supply of free pollen is really used in 

 forming the corbicular masses. Without doubt much of it falls from 

 the bee and is lost, and in cases where it is extremely abundant and 

 the grains are very small in size an appreciable amount still remains 

 entangled among the body-hairs when the bee returns to the hive. 

 Yet it is also evident that some of the dry pollen is mingled with the 

 moistened material which the mouthparts and forelegs acquire and 

 together with this is transferred to the baskets. 



In all cases the pollen-gathering process starts with moist pollen 

 from the mouth region. This pollen is passed backward, and in its 

 passage it imparts additional moisture to those body regions which 

 it touches, the brushes of the fore and middle legs, the plantse of the 

 hind legs, and the hairs of the breast which are scraped over by the 

 fore and middle leg Inrushes. This moist pollen, in its passage back- 

 ward, may also pick up and add to itself grains of dr}^ pollen Avith 

 which it accidentally comes in contact. Some of the free, dry pollen 



