16 BEHAVIOR or HONEY BEE IN POLLEN COLLECTING. 



for this purpose quite often during the process of loading the baskets, 

 and a small amount of pollen is incidentally added to the masses 

 when the brushes come into contact with them. A misinterpretation 

 of this action has led some observers into the erroneous belief that 

 all or nearly all of the corbicular pollen is scraped from the middle- 

 leg brushes by the hairs which fringe the sides of the baskets. The 

 middle legs do not scrape across the baskets, but merely pat down- 

 ward upon the pollen which is there accumulating. 



It is also possible that, in transferring pollen from the middle leg 

 of one side to the planta of the opposite hind leg, the middle-leg 

 brush may touch and rub over the pecten of the hind leg and thus 

 directly place some of its pollen behind the pecten spines. Such a 

 result is, however, very doubtful. 



ACTION" OF THE HIND LEGS. 



The middle legs contribute the. major portion of the pollen which 

 reaches the hind legs, and all of it in cases where all of the pollen 

 first reaches the bee in the region of the mouth. However, when 

 much pollen falls upon the body of the bee the hind legs coUect a 

 little of it directly, for it falls upon their brushes and is collected 

 upon them when these legs execute cleansing movements to remove 

 it from the ventral surface and sides of the abdomen. All of the 

 pollen which reaches the corbiculse, with the exception of the small 

 amount placed there by the middle legs when they pat down the 

 pollen masses, passes first to the pollen combs of the plantse. 



When in the act of loading pollen from the plantar brushes to the 

 corbiculse the two hind legs hang beneath the abdomen with the tibio- 

 femoral joints well drawn up toward the body. (See fig. 7.) The 

 two plantse lie close together with their inner surfaces nearly parallel 

 to each other, but not quite, since they diverge slightly at their distal 

 ends. The pollen combs of one leg are in contact with the pecten 

 comb of the opposite leg. If pollen is to be transferred from the 

 right planta to the left basket, the right planta is drawn upward in 

 such a manner that the pollen combs of the right leg scrape over 

 the pecten spines of the. left. By this action some of the pollen is 

 removed from the right plantar combs and is caught upon the outer 

 surfaces of the pecten spines of the left leg. 



This pollen now lies against the pecten and upon the flattened 

 distal end of the left tibia. At this moment the planta of the left 

 leg is flexed slightly, thus elevating the auricle and bringing the auri- 

 cular surface into contact with the pollen which the pecten has just 

 received. By this action the pollen is squeezed between the end of the 

 tibia and the surface of the auricle and is forced upward against the 

 distal end of the tibia and on outward into contact with the pollen 

 ■ mass accumulating in the corbicula. As this act, by which the left 



