THORAX AND LEGS. 1 25 



summer sun, and cling on to the straw roof of their 

 skep, or the splintery roughness of their wooden hive. 

 But the tiny foot has yet another power ; for bees 

 can, like flies (although not with equal facility), 

 sustain themselves on the polished surfaces of leaves 

 and petals, and upon glass if needs be, although here 

 they get no fixing for their anguiculi. Placing a bee 

 in a bottle, and watching it through a hand magnifier 

 as it ascends the sides, we see between the claws a 

 whitish body {pv, A, Fig. 25), which seems to expand, 

 like the camel's foot, as the step is taken. I am not 

 aware that any observer has previously given the 

 pulvillus of the bee attention, yet it is so singular 

 and beautiful that to understand it is to be delighted. 

 All sorts of guesses (for guessing is so easy) have 

 been advanced to explain the fly's walk on the ceiling. 

 Some taught that its foot acted like a boy's sucker, 

 and that the fly was sustained by the pressure of the 

 air ; but experiment quickly disposed of the error. 

 The fly can walk inverted on glass in a vacuum, but, 

 if it be moistened, the insect cannot walk on it at 

 all. So with bees : breathe on your glass super, or 

 manage so badly that it becomes moist inside, and 

 its surface altogether fails in affording foothold, for 

 the pulvilli give out a clammy secretion, which is 

 left in minute quantity behind, and I have found 

 high powers of the microscope to reveal its trace. 

 The moisture, of course, prevents this secretion from 

 taking effect. Dusting with flour, or very slightly 

 greasing, just as completely makes perpendicular 

 smooth surfaces impossible of ascent. This will 

 explain why bees so object to plunging into pea 



