HYMENOPTERA 367 



its hairy coat towards the under surface of the body, and thence to the 

 hind-legs, which are provided with an organ (a kind of " sweeping 

 brush") for sweeping the dust together. This consists of several trans- 

 verse rows of short stiff hairs, known as the brush, and situated on the 

 inner side of the first tar sal joint, which is very large. When the bee, 

 therefore, wipes the brush covered with pollen dust against the femur 

 of the opposite leg, the baskets are filled with the pollen balls. Coherent 

 masses of pollen the bee removes from the stamens by means of its 

 mandibles, seizes them with its front-legs, and passes them on to the 

 hind-legs. Dry pollen dust (e.g., of plants which are pollinated by the 

 wind) is first moistened with honey vomited up by the bee. The propolis 

 is also collected and carried home in this manner. Drones and queens 

 do not possess these collecting organs. 



D. The Bee in its Relations to other Organisms. 



1. The existence of the bee, as we have seen, depends on that of 

 flowers. Like most insects, however, which visit flowers in search of 

 food, the bee renders its food-providers a most valuable service in return, 

 for by carrying to the stigma of the same or another flower pollen which 

 may happen to adhere to its hairy body it effects its pollination or 

 fertilization. More than that, being obliged to visit (like its nearest 

 relatives, the numerous wild species of bees and humble-bees) a large 

 number of flowers in order to collect a sufficient amount of honey, the 

 bee becomes one of the most important agents of plant fertilization in 

 Nature. (Compare Goethe's " Gleich und Gleich.") 



2. Enemies. With the exception of the honey buzzard, a raptorial 

 bird very similar to the common buzzard, the titmice, green woodpecker, 

 and stork, our native birds are for the most part careful not to attack the 

 bee, whose sting, as we all know, is very painful. The chief enemies of 

 the bee, in fact, belong to its own order (e.g., hornets and wasps), which, 

 excelling it in size and strength, kill and consume it. Fierce contests 

 are also often waged between the bees of different hives, for among bees, 

 too, we find pirates who fight shy of honest work, and desire to get 

 property by stealing. They break into the hives of their neighbours for 

 the purpose of stealing the honey, but, being possessed of a different 

 "hive scent," they are frequently caught by the inhabitants of the hive 

 before they can get to the honey- jars, and punished for their intended 

 burglary with a violent bi,te or a fatal sting. 



The sting of the bee (and of its allies) consists of a small, finely- 

 pointed, chitinous tube, provided with small barbs at its end. It is 

 connected with a little bag, in which a poisonous fluid secreted by glands 



