THE BEHAVIOR OF THE HONEY BEE IN POLLEN COLLECTING. 
INTRODUCTION. 
While working upon the problem of wax-scale manipulation dur- 
ing the summer of 1911 the writer became convinced that the so- 
called wax shears or pinchers of the worker honey bee have nothing 
whatever to do with the extraction of the wax scales from their 
pockets, but rather that they are organs used in loading the pollen 
from the pollen combs of the hind legs into the corbiculse or pollen 
baskets (Casteel, 1912). Further observations made at that time dis- 
closed the exact method by which the hind legs are instrumental in 
the pollen-loading process and also the way in which the middle legs 
aid the hind legs in patting down the pollen masses. During the 
summer of 1912 additional information was secured, more particu- 
larly that relating to the manner in which pollen is collected upon 
the body and legs of the bee, how it is transferred to the hind legs, 
how it is moistened, and finally the method by which it is stored in 
the hive for future use. In the present paper a complete account will 
be given of the history of the pollen from the time it leaves the flower 
until it rests within the cells of the hive. The points of more par- 
ticular interest in the description of pollen manipulation refer to 
(1) the movements concerned in gathering the pollen from the 
flowers upon the body and legs, (2) the method by which the baskets 
of the hind legs receive the loads which they carry to the hive, and 
(3) the manner in which the bee moistens pollen and renders it suf- 
ficiently cohesive for packing and transportation. 
THE STRUCTURES CONCERNED IN THE MANIPULATION OF 
POLLEN. 
The hairs which cover the body and appendages of the bee are of 
the utmost importance in the process of pollen gathering. For the 
purposes of this account these hairs may be classified roughly as 
(1) branched hairs and (2) unbranched hairs, the latter including 
both long, slender hairs and stiff, spinelike structures. 
1 Of these two classes the branched hairs are the more numerous. 
They make up the hairy coat of the head, thorax, and abdomen, with 
the exception of short sensory spines, as those found upon the an- 
tenna? and perhaps elsewhere, and the stiff unbranched hairs which 
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