22 THE HUMBLE-BEE 



brush of the right leg transfers its pollen to the 

 corbicula of the left leg, and vice versa, but he 

 goes on to say that the transfer is effected by the 

 metatarsus scraping its brush on the upper edge 

 of the tibia. 1 My own belief is that the pollen is 

 scraped off the metatarsal brush by a comb, situated 

 at the end of the tibia on the inside, into a concave 

 receiver there. When the leg is straightened a pro- 

 jection on the metatarsus called the auricle enters 

 the receiver, compresses the pollen, and pushes it 

 out on to the lower end of the corbicula, where there 

 is a break in the surrounding wall of hair, and 

 plasters it to the mass of pollen already collected in 

 the corbicula. Finally, the metatarsus of the middle 

 leg is used to pat the pollen down on the corbicula. 



This opinion is supported by (i) the structure of 

 the parts, (2) the fact that when the bees are collect- 

 ing pollen from the flowers they rub their hind-legs 

 together in a longitudinal direction and do not cross 

 them, and (3) an examination I made of the load of 

 a honey-bee, which consisted partly of white and 

 partly of orange-coloured pollen. The orange pollen 

 (which had evidently been gathered last, because the 

 metatarsal bushes were filled with orange pollen) 

 was found only on that part of the corbicula that 

 was nearest to the auricle, where it had been forced 

 in as a wedge between the white pollen and the 

 corbicula, causing the whole mass of pollen to swell 

 and rise and also to buckle in the middle. The 

 outer side of the lump of pollen was tinged on the 



1 Bees and Bee-keeping, by F. R. Cheshire, 1888, vol. i. page 131. 



