16 BEHAVI0K OF HONEY BEE IX POLLEN COLLECTING. 
for this purpose quite often during the process of loading the baskets, 
and a small amount of pollen is incidentally added to the masses 
when the brushes come into contact with them. A misinterpretation 
of this action has led some observers into the erroneous belief that 
all or nearly all of the corbicular pollen is scraped from the middle- 
leg brushes by the hairs which fringe the sides of the baskets. The 
middle legs do not scrape across the baskets, but .merely pat down- 
ward upon the pollen which is there accumulating. 
It is also possible that, in transferring pollen from the middle leg 
of one side to the planta of the opposite hind leg, the middle-leg 
brush may touch and rub over the pecten of the hind leg and thus 
directly place some of its pollen behind the pecten spines. Such a 
result is, however, very doubtful. 
ACTION OF THE HIND LEGS. 
The middle legs contribute the major portion of the pollen which 
reaches the hind legs, and all of it in cases where all of the pollen 
first reaches the bee in the region of the mouth. However, when 
much pollen falls upon the body of the bee the hind legs collect a 
little of it directly, for it falls upon their brushes and is collected 
upon them when these legs execute cleansing movements to remove 
it from the ventral surface and sides of the abdomen. All of the 
pollen which reaches the corbicula?, with the exception of the small 
amount placed there by the middle legs when they pat down the^ 
pollen masses, passes first to the pollen combs of the planta?. 
"When in the act of loading pollen from the plantar brushes to the 
corbicula? the two hind legs hang beneath the abdomen with the tibio- 
femoral joints well drawn up toward the body. (See fig. 7.) The 
two planta? lie close together with their inner surfaces nearly parallel 
to each other, but not quite, since they diverge slightly at their distal 
ends. The pollen combs of one leg are in contact with the pecten 
comb of the opposite leg. If pollen is to be transferred from the 
right planta to the left basket, the right planta is drawn upward in 
such a manner that the pollen combs of the right leg scrape over 
the pecten spines of the left. By this action some of the pollen is 
removed from the right plantar combs and is caught upon the outer 
surfaces of the pecten spines of the left leg. 
This pollen now lies against the pecten and upon the flattened 
distal end of the left tibia. At this moment the planta of the left 
leg is flexed slightly, thus elevating the auricle and bringing the auri- 
cular surface into contact with the pollen which the pecten has just 
received. By this action the pollen is squeezed between the end of the 
tibia and the surface of the auricle and is forced upward against the 
distal end of the tibia and on outward into contact with the pollen 
mass accumulating in the corbicula. As this act, by which the left 
