The Honey Bee and the Fly 



357 



structure, brush and velum, is known as the antenna cleaner, while the 



row of teeth lining the indentation is called the antenna comb. 



The antennae are cleaned by being pulled through the indentation 



between the teeth and the edge of the velum. 



On this first tarsal joint also, there is found a row of spines called 



the eye brush. This structure is used to brush out pollen which has 



lodged about the compound eyes. 



On the last tarsal joint of each leg there is a pair of notched claws 



by which the insect holds on to rough surfaces. Between these claws 



there is a fleshy glandular lobule, known as the pulvillus, which is cov- 

 ered with a sticky secretion from the 

 glands. It is by this sticky substance 

 that the insect can attach itself to 

 smooth surfaces. Then, too, tactile or 

 touch hairs are present. 



The mesothoracic legs do not have 

 an antennae cleaner, but at the distal 

 end of the tibia there is a spur which 

 is used to pry the pollen out of the 

 pollen baskets on the third pair of legs, 

 as well as to clean the wings. 



The metathoracic legs are prob- 

 ably the most interesting, in that they 

 possess a pollen basket, a wax pincer, 

 and pollen combs. The pollen basket 

 is a concavity in the outer surface of 

 the tibia. There are rows of curved 

 bristles along the edges. Pollen is 

 stored in this basket. The filling takes 

 place by the pollen combs scraping out 

 the pollen from the hairs on the thorax 

 into the basket on the opposite leg. 



Because of their pincer-like ap- 

 pearance the opposed ends of the tibia 

 and metatarsus of the hind leg were 

 formerly called "wax-pincers." The row of wide spines on the end of 

 the tibia forms the pecten; the flat, tamp-like plate at the end of the 

 metatarsus opposed to the pecten, is the auricle. This jaw-like structure 

 is used to transfer pollen to the pollen-basket. The pecten is scraped 

 downward over the pollen comb of the opposite leg, and the pollen thus 

 secured is pushed upward into the pollen-basket from below by the 

 rising auricle as the leg is flexed. 



As already stated, a pair of membranous wings are attached to the 

 mesothorax and a pair are attached to the metathorax. There are hollow 

 ribs, called nerves or veins, passing through each wing. Often a row 



Sting of worker honey-bee. b., barbs on 

 darts; i., k., I., levers to move darts; n., 

 nerves; p., sting-feeler; pg., poison gland; 

 ps., poison sac; sh., sheath; 5th g., fifth 

 abdominal ganglion. (From Packard, 



after Cheshire.) 



