ADDITIONAL DETAILS OF BASKET-LOADING PEOCESS. 



19 



along the lower or distal margin of the basket. (See fig 8, a.} It is 

 in this position because it has been scraped from the planta of the 

 opposite leg by the pecten comb and has been pushed upward past 

 the entrance of the basket by the continued addition of more from 

 below, propelled by the successive strokes of the auricle. Closer 



Fig. 8. — Camera drawings of the left hind legs of worker bees to show the manner in 

 which pollen enters the basket, a, Shows a leg taken from a bee which is just begin- 

 ning to collect. It had crawled (.vcr a few flowers and had flown in the air about five 

 seconds at the time of capture. The pollen mass lies at the entrance of the basket, 

 covering over the fine hairs which lie along this margin and the seven or eight short 

 stiff spines which spring from the floor of the corbicula immediately above its lower 

 edge. As yet the pollen has not come in contact with the one long hair which rises 

 froDj the floor and arches over the entrance. The planta is extended, thus lowering 

 the auricle ; i, represents a slightly later stage, showing the increase of pollen. The 

 planta is flexed, raising the auricle. The hairs which extend outward and upward from 

 the lateral edge of the auricle press upon the lower and outer surface of the small 

 pollen mass, retaining it and guiding it upward into the basket ; <•, d, represent slightly 

 later stages in the successive processes by which additional pollen enters the basket. 

 (Original.) 



examination of the region between the pecten and the floor of the 

 basket itself shows more pollen, which is on its way to join that 

 already squeezed into the basket. 



If the collecting bee is watched for a few moments the increase will 

 readily be noted and the fact will be established that the accumulat- 

 ing mass is gradually working upward or proximally from the lower 



