38 
ON THE ANATOMY' OF 
The hairs with which the basket is lined, arc designed 
to retain firmly the materials with which the thigh is 
loaded. The three pair of legs are all furnished, 
particularly at the joints, with thick-set hairs, form- 
ing brushes, some of them round, some flattened, 
and which serve the purpose of sweeping off the 
farina. There is yet another remarkable peculiarity 
in this third pair of limbs. The junction of the pallet 
and tarsus is effected in such a manner as to form, 
by the curved shape of the corresponding parts, “"a 
pair of real pincers. A rowof shelly teeth, (PI. II. Fig. 
3 »,) like those of a comb, proceed from the lower edge 
of the pallet, corresponding to bundles of very strong 
hairs, with which the neighbouring portion of the 
brush is provided. When the two edges of the pin- 
cers meet — that is, the under edge of the pallet, and 
the upper edge of the brush, the hairs of each are 
incorporated together.”* The extremities of the six 
feet or tarsi, terminate each in two hooks, with their 
points opposed to each other, by means of which the 
Bees fix themselves to the roof of the hive, and to 
one another, when suspended, as they often are, in 
the form of curtains, inverted cones, festoons, lad- 
ders, &c. From the middle of these hooks proceeds 
a little thin appendix, which, when not in use, lies 
folded double through its whole breadth ; when in 
action it enables the insect to sustain its body in 
opposition to the force of gravity, and thereby adhere 
to, and walk freely and securely upon glass and 
other slippery substances, with its feet upwards. 
Huber’s Observations on Bees, p. 351. 
