ANATOMT OP THE BEE. 



19 





34. Legs.— 



Three pairs of 

 legs originate in 

 the thorax — the; 

 anterior legs in 

 the pro-thorax ; 

 the intermediate 

 legs in the meso- 

 thorax ; the pos- 

 terior legs in 

 the meta-thorax. 

 The anterior leg 



has the curry-comb — a semt-circular 

 toothed recess, and a veiiiDi, or sar 

 by winch the antennse are combed, the 

 legs being moved to the front of the 

 head, and then drawn outwards, clean- 

 ing the antennse which have dropped 

 into the recesses. The intermediate 

 leg is furnished with a spur w'hich has 

 been supposed to act as a lever to re- 

 move the pollen balls from the corbi- 

 cula, but the precise use of which is 

 still a subject of controversy. The 

 posterior, or hind leg of the worker 

 (Fig. s), consisting of nine joints, is 

 provided, as to the upper joints, with 

 stiff, bristling hairs, by which pollen 

 and propolis are collected. The tibia 

 (ii) and the planta [p] are articulated 

 at the inner angles of the joints, and, 

 as they move, the parts opposite lop 

 open and shut like jaws, the upper 

 one having a supply of teeth which 

 close upon the lower, flattened surface. 

 These jaws are used for removing the 

 plates of wax from the abdomen (62). 

 They are absent in the queen and 

 drone, wax production being a function 

 jf the worker only. The stiff combs 

 ip) remove and collect from the hairs 

 of the thorax the particles of pollen 

 gathered there, and these are transferred to the hollow, 

 fringed portion of the tibia {ti) called the corhiciila, or 

 pollen basket, the combs on the left leg supplying the 

 right corbicula, and those on the right acting similarly 

 towards the left basket. These baskets, with their loads of 

 varied coloured pollen, are familiar objects to all who have 



THIRD 



Sidu 



OF 



EIGHT LEO 

 WORKER, 

 next the body. 



{Magnified ten times.^ 

 c, Coxa; tr, Trochanter 

 Tibia ; wp, Wax Pincers 

 Planta; t. Tarsus. 



