QUEEN-REARING IN ENGLAND. 85 



leaning towards the entering stream of pollen. These bristles 

 form a means of attachment to the corbicula for the pollen 

 mass before it has grown large enough to be held by the 

 bristles at the sides. In Afis the fluff is scanty, and there 

 is only one long impeding bristle (10, Fig. 37). In both 

 bees the entrance to the corbicula is overarched by the bristles 

 on either side (see Figs. 37 and 43). This arch helps to 

 support the accumulated mass of pollen while allowing fresh 

 pollen to pass in freely underneath it. 



It is evident that the honey with which the pollen is 

 moistened comes from the mouth. Some authors have sup- 

 posed that the honey is removed from the mouth on the 

 feet, which are thus rendered sticky, so that the pollen dust 

 clings to them ; others that the pollen dust is conveyed to 

 the mouth to be moistened. It is true that I have found 

 occasionally a minute ball of moistened pollen in the man- 

 dibles of pollen-collecting bees, but this might be accounted 

 for by the fact remarked by Hommell, and later by Craw- 

 shaw and Casteel, that the mandibles are used to some ex- 

 tent in collecting pollen from the flowers. In the case of 

 such flowers as white arabis, wallflower, and red ribes, the 

 pollen is entirely gathered in the region of the mouth. 



Casteel, in his recently published paper, The Behaviour 

 of the Honey-bee in Pollen Collecting, considers it is ex- 

 tremely difficult to determine with absolute accuracy the 

 essential steps involved in the process of adding moisture to 

 the pollen. He states, however, that the honey from the 

 mouth becomes well distributed over the brushes of all the 

 legs, and that " all of these brushes also transport wet pollen 

 which has come from the mouth parts, and thereby acquire 

 additional moisture. The auricles and the plantse of the 

 hind legs become particularly wet from this source, since 

 fluid is squeezed from the wet pollen when it is compressed 

 between the auricles and "the distal ends of the tibia. Dry 

 pollen which falls upon the body hairs becomes moist when 

 brought into contact with the wet brushes or with wet pollen. 

 During the -process of manipulation pollen passes backward 

 from its point of contact -with the bee toward its resting- 

 place within the baskets." 



I have noticed that the pollen on the brushes of the hind 

 legs is much more moist than that on the brushes of the fore 



