126 Legs of Bees. 



who had in turn grasped hold of us. When walking up a 

 vertical wall of glass or other smooth metal, the claws are 

 of no use and so are turned back (Fig. 45) and the pul- 

 villi — glandular organs — are spread out and serve to hold 

 the bee. These secrete a viscid or adhesive substance which 

 so sticks that the bee can even walk up a window pane. 

 This is why bees soon cloud or befoul glass over which 

 they constantly walk. We thus understand why a bee 

 finds it laborious and difficult to walk up a moist or dust- 

 covered glass. 



The middle legs of the worker bee are only peculiar in 

 the prominent tibial spur (Fig. 46) and the brushes or pol- 

 len combs on the inside of the first tai'sus. It has been said 

 that the spur is useful in prying off the pollen masses from 

 the posterior legs, as the bee enters the hive to deposit the 

 pollen in the cells. This is doubtless an error. The queen 

 and drone have this spur even longer than does the worker; 

 the pollen comes off easy, and needs no crow-bar to loosen 

 it. The coarse, projecting hairs on all the feet are doubt- 

 less the agents that push off the loads of pollen. 



We have already seen how the brushes or combs on the 

 inner face of the first tarsus of the middle legs serve to 

 remove the dust from the antenna cleaner. These also 

 serve as combs, like similar but more perfect organs on the 

 posterior legs, to remove the pollen from the pollen hairs, 

 and pack it in the pollen baskets on the hind legs. 



But the posterior legs are the most interesting, as it is 

 rare to find organs more varied in their uses, and so as we 

 should expect, these are strangely modified. The branch- 

 ing or pollen gathering hairs (Fig. 48) are very abundant 

 on the coxa trochanter and femur, and not absent, though 

 much fewer (Fig. 47) on the broad triangular tibia. The 

 basal tarsus (Fig. 47) is quadurate, and it, and the tibia 

 on the outside (Fig. 47), are smooth and concave, espe- 

 cially on the posterior portion, which shallow cavity forms 

 the "pollen basket." This is deepened by stiff marginal 

 hairs, which stand up like stakes in a sled. These spinous 

 hairs not only hold the pollen mass, as do stakes, but often 

 pierce it and so bind the soft pollen to the leg. Opposite 

 the pollen cavity of the first tarsus, or on the inside (Fio- 



