120 EVENINGS AT THE MICROSCOPE. 



collects it is, by raking or combing it from the anthers, by 

 means of these effective instruments on its hind feet. 



You see that in this specimen the combs are loaded 

 with the grains, which lie thickly in the furrows between 

 one comb and another. But how do they discharge their 

 gatherings ? Do they return to the hive as soon as they 

 have accumulated a quantity such as this, which one 

 would suppose they could gather in two or three scrapes 

 of the foot ? No ; they carry a pair of panniers, or col- 

 lecting baskets, which they gradually fill from the combs, 

 and then return to deposit the results of their collecting. 



One of these baskets I can show you ; and, indeed, it 

 would be unpardonable to overlook it, for it is the com- 

 panion structure to the former. I make the stage forceps 

 to revolve on its axis, and thus bring into focus the joint 

 (tibia) immediately above that of the combs, and so that 

 we shall look at its opposite surface ; that is, the outer. 

 We notice at once two or three peculiarities, which dis- 

 tinguish the joint in this instance from other parts of the 

 same limb, and from the corresponding part in the same 

 limb of other insects. 



First, the surface is decidedly concave, whereas it is 

 ordinarily convex. Secondly, this concave surface is 

 smooth and polished (except that it is covered with a 

 minute network of crossed lines), not a single hair, even 

 the most minute, can be discerned in any part ; whereas 

 the corresponding surface of the next joints, both above 

 and below, is studded with fine hairs, as is the exterior of 

 insects generally. Thirdly, the edges of this hollowed 

 basin are beset with long, slender, acute spines, which 

 follow the same curve as the bottom and sides, expanding 

 widely, and arching upward. 



Here, then, we have a capital collecting basket. Its 

 concavity of course fits it to contain the pollen. Then its 

 freedom from hairs is important : hairs would be out of 

 place in the concavity. Thirdly, the marginal spines 



