28 
BEHAVIOR OF HONEY BEE IX POLLEN COLLECTING. 
In describing pollen manipulation several writers state that dry 
pollen is picked up by the brushes of the legs and is carried forward 
to the mouth, there moistened (according to some, masticated), and 
is then carried backward by the middle legs for loading. Obviously 
such accounts do not apply to cases in which all of the pollen is col- 
lected by mouthparts and forelegs. Do they apply in cases where 
much pollen falls on the body and limbs? Without doubt a certain 
amount of this free pollen is brought forward when the middle legs, 
bearing some of it, sweep forward and downward over the forelegs, 
mouthparts, and breast. However, it does not appear to the writer 
that this dry pollen is carried to the mouth for the specific purpose of 
moistening it, or that it is essential to its moistening that it be 
brought in contact with the mouth. Some of it touches the moist 
hairs on the forelegs and breast and is moistened by contact. All 
that remains on the brushes of the middle legs secures moisture from 
these brushes or from wet pollen which the brushes collect from the 
mouthparts or forelegs. The supposed necessity of carrying forward 
pollen to the mouth for moistening is a delusion. Some is acci- 
dental^ 7 brought forward and into contact with the mouth and gets 
wet, but the process is not essential. 
If the pollen which bees transport to their hives has been moistened 
with some fluid substance which causes the grains to cohere, this 
addition should be indicated by differences in the results of an analy- 
sis of pollen from a plant as compared with that found in the cor- 
biculse of a bee which has been working on this plant. For the sake 
of determining this difference and in an endeavor to ascertain, if 
possible, the approximate nature of the added fluid, analyses were 
made of three kinds of pollen, as follows: (1) Pollen collected by 
hand from the corn plant itself; (2) pollen taken from the corbiculpe 
of bees which had secured their supply from corn; (3) pollen stored 
in the cells of the hive. In the first two cases pollen from the same 
species of plant (corn) was used. The material from the cells of the 
hive was composed largely of corn pollen, but contained an admixture 
of some other pollens. 
The writer is indebted to Dr. P. B. Dunbar, of the Bureau of 
Chemistry, for the following analyses : 
Pollen 
direct 
from 
corn. 
Corn pol- 
len from 
corbieula. 
Stored 
pollen 
from 
hive. 
53.47 
46.53 
2.87 
2.77 
5.79 
66.94 
33. 06 
11.07 
3.06 
14.29 
79.66 
20.34 
17.90 
2.25 
Total reducing sugar after inversion 
20.27 
Dry basis: 
£.37 
5.18 
16.54 
4.57 
22 47 
Sucrose 
2.82 
10.55 
21.11 
