22 
MANUAL OF APICULTURE. 
biculuni or pollen basket, represented by the longest joints of the legs, 
A, B, and 0, fig. 7. Into this the pollen falls, and with the middle 
pair of legs is tamped down for transportation to the hive. Having 
arrived there, the bee thrusts its hind legs into a cell located as near to 
the brood nest as may be, and loosening the pellets lets them fall into 
the bottom of the cell. The tibial spur (fig. 7, e) on each middle leg is, 
as Professor Cheshire has pointed out, probably of use in prying the 
pellets out. The latter are simply dropped into cells and left for some 
other bee to pack down 
by kneading or pressing 
with its mandibles. Va- 
rious colors — yellow, 
brown, red, slate, etc., 
according to the kinds 
of flowers from which 
gath ered — frequently 
show in layers in the 
same cell. Often when 
partly filled with pollen 
the cell is then filled up 
with honey and sealed 
more or less hermetically 
with wax. The bees 
store the pollen, for con- 
venience in feeding, 
above and at the sides 
of the brood and as near 
to it as possible, the 
comb on each side of the 
brood nest being gener- 
ally well stored with it. 
NECTAR AND HONEY. 
The liquid secreted in 
the nectaries of flowers 
is usually quite thin, 
containing, when 
gathered, a large 
centage of water. ■ 
suck or lap it up 
Fig. 8.— Head and tongue of Apis mellifera worker (magni- 
fied twelve times), a, Antenna, or feeler; m, mandibula, or 
outer jaw; g, gum flap, or epipharynx; mxp, maxillary palpus; 
pg, paraglossa; mx, maxilla, or inner jaw; Ip, labial palpus, 
I, ligula, or tongue ; b, bouton, or spoon of the same. (Reduced 
from Cheshire.) 
JUSt 
per- 
Bees 
from 
such flowers as they can 
reach with their flexible, sucking tongue, 0.25 to 0.28 inch long. (Fig. 
8, I.) This nectar is taken into the honey sac (Plate II, h. s.) located in 
the abdomen, for transportation to the hive. It is possible that part of 
the water is eliminated by the gatherers before they reach the hive. A 
Eussian bee keeper, M. Nassanoff, while dissecting a worker, discovered 
