28 



BEHAVIOR OF HONEY BEE IN POLLEN COLLECTING. 



In describing pollen manipulation several writers state that dry 

 pollen is picked up by the brushes of the legs and is carried forward 

 to the mouth, there moistened (according to some, masticated), and 

 is then carried backward by the middle legs for loading. Obviously 

 such accounts do not apply to cases in which all of the pollen is col- 

 lected by mouthparts and forelegs. Do they apply in cases where 

 much pollen falls on the body and limbs? Without doubt a certain 

 amount of this free pollen is brought forward when the middle legs, 

 bearing some of it, sweep forward and downward over the forelegs, 

 mouthparts, and breast. However, it does not appear to the writer 

 that this chy pollen is carried to the mouth for the specific purpose of 

 moistening it, or that it is essential to its moistening that it be 

 brought in contact with the mouth. Some of it touches the moist 

 hairs on the forelegs and breast and is moistened by contact. All 

 that remains on the brushes of the middle legs secures moisture from 

 these brushes or from wet pollen which the brushes collect from the 

 mouthparts or forelegs. The supposed necessity of carrying forward 

 pollen to the mouth for moistening is a delusion. Some is acci- 

 dentally brought forward and into contact with the mouth and gets 

 wet, but the process is not essential. 



If the pollen which bees transport to their hives has been moistened 

 with some fluid substance which causes the grains to cohere, this 

 addition should be indicated by differences in the results of an analy- 

 sis of pollen from a plant as compared with that found in the cor- 

 biculse of a bee which has been working on this plant. For the sake 

 of determining this difference and in an endeavor to ascertain, if 

 possible, the approximate nature of the added fluid, analyses were 

 made of three kinds of pollen, as follows: (1) Pollen collected by 

 hand from the corn plant itself; (2) pollen taken from the corbicula3 

 of bees which had secured their supply from corn; (3) pollen stored 

 in the cells of the hive. In the first two cases pollen from the same 

 species of plant (corn) was used. The material from the cells of the 

 hive was composed largely of corn pollen, but contained an admixture 

 of some other pollens. 



The Avriter is indebted to Dr. P. B. Dunbar, of the Bureau of 

 Chemistry, for the following analyses: 



Pollen 

 direct 

 from 

 corn. 



Corn pol- 

 len from 

 corbicula. 



Stored 

 pollen 

 from 

 hive. 



Total solids 



Moisture 



Reducing sugar before inversion 



Sucrose 



Total reducing sugar after inversion 



Dry basis: 



Reducing sugar 



Sucrose 



53.47 

 46.53 

 2.87 

 2.77 

 5.79 



66.94 

 33.06 

 11.07 

 3.06 

 14.29 



79.66 

 20.34 

 17.90 

 2.25 

 20.27 



5.37 



5.18 



16.54 

 4.57 



22.47 

 2.82 



