Dana Brackenridge Casteel

“ The mandibles are used to scrape over the anthers of flowers, and considerable pollen adheres to them and is later removed. The same is true of the maxillæ and tongue. From the mouth comes the fluid by which the pollen grains are moistened.
The legs of the worker bee are especially adapted for pollen gathering. Each leg bears a collecting brush, composed of stiff, unbranched hairs set closely together. These brushes are located upon the first or most proximal tarsal segment of the legs, known technically as the palmæ of the forelegs and as the plantæ of the middle and hind pair. ”

“ Pollen masses which have been dropped by the collecting bee may remain for some time within the cell without further treatment, but usually another worker attends to the packing of the pollen shortly after it has been deposited. To accomplish this the worker enters the cell head first, seizes the pollen pellets with its mandibles, breaks them up somewhat or flattens them out, probably mingles additional fluid with the pollen, and tamps down the mass securely in the bottom of the cell. ”

“ The collecting brush of the middle leg is now thrust in between the tarsus and coxa of the foreleg and wipes off some of the pollen from the foreleg brush. The middle leg brush is then raised and combs down over the flexed foreleg, thus removing additional pollen from the outer surface of this leg. The middle leg also at times reaches far forward, stroking down over the foreleg before it is entirely flexed and apparently combing over with its tarsal brush the face and mouthparts themselves. ”

“ If the collecting bee is seized with forceps and examined after it has crawled over the stamens of a few flowers of the corn, its legs and the ventral surface of its body are found to be thickly powdered over with pollen. If the bee hovers in the air for a few moments and is then examined very little pollen is found upon the body or upon the legs, except the masses within the pollen baskets. While in the air it has accomplished the work of collecting some of the scattered grains and of storing them in the baskets, while others have been brushed from the body. ”

“ A very complete knowledge of the pollen-gathering behavior of the worker honey bee may be obtained by a study of the actions of bees which are working upon a plant which yields pollen in abundance. Sweet corn is an ideal plant for this purpose, and it will be used as a basis for the description which follows. ”

“ The movements of the legs and of the mouthparts are so rapid and so many [12] members are in action at once that it is impossible for the eye to follow all at the same time. However, long-continued observation, assisted by the study of instantaneous photographs, gives confidence that the statements recorded are accurate, although some movements may have escaped notice.
To obtain pollen from corn the bee must find a tassel in the right stage of ripeness, with flowers open and stamens hanging from them. The bee alights upon a spike and crawls along it, clinging to the pendent anthers. ”

“ The value of the honey bee in cross pollinating the flowers of fruit trees makes it desirable that exact information be available concerning the actions of the bee when gathering and manipulating the pollen. ”

“ When the bee has fully loaded its baskets and before it returns to the hive it often spends a little time upon the plant from which it has been collecting, occupied with the task of cleaning scattered grains of pollen from its body and of patting down securely the loads which it has obtained. ”

“ The supply of pollen which is available for the bees varies greatly among different flowers. Some furnish an abundant amount and present it to the bee in such a way that little difficulty is experienced in quickly securing an ample load, while others furnish but little. When flowers are small and when the bee approaches them from above, little, if any, pollen is scattered over the bee's body, all that it acquires being first collected upon the mouth and neighboring parts, of a Very different conditions are met with when bees visit such plants as corn and ragweed. ”

“ 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 downward upon the pollen which is there accumulating. ”

“ The surface of the auricle is marked with short, blunt spines, pyramidal in form, and a fringe of fine hairs with branching ends extends along its lateral edge. This surface slopes upward and outward.
THE POLLEN SUPPLY.
When bees collect pollen from flowers they may be engaged in this occupation alone or may combine it with nectar gathering. From some flowers the bees take only nectar, from others only pollen; a third class of flowers furnishes an available supply of both of these substances. ”

“ When the middle leg reaches forward to execute any of the above movements the direction of the stroke is outward, forward, and then back toward the body, the action ending with the brush of the leg in contact with the long hairs of the breast and with those which spring [15] from the proximal segments of the forelegs (coxa, trochanter, femur) . ”

“ Although the pollen of some plants appears to be somewhat sticky, it may be stated that as a general rule pollen can not be successfully manipulated and packed in the baskets without the addition of some fluid substance, preferably a fluid which will cause the grains to cohere. ”

“ The long hairs which form the lateral boundaries of the baskets are not used to comb out pollen from the brushes of any of the legs. They serve to retain the accumulating masses within the baskets and to support the weight of the pollen, as it projects far beyond the surfaces of the tibiæ. ”

“ Since the pollen of many plants is sticky and moist it adheres to the surface of the basket. Dry pollen is moistened by saliva, so that it also sticks,— [Translation from Fleischmann and Zander. 1910.] ”

“ His description of the basket-loading process itself is so similar to the writer's own that a complete quotation from him is unnecessary. A few differences of opinion will, however, be noted while discussing some of the movements which the process involves. As will later be noted, our ideas regarding the question of pollen moistening, collecting, and transference are somewhat different. ”

“ The different pairs of legs were certainly brought together occasionally, but not after every scrape of the hind metatarsi, and their movements were so quick that it was impossible to see what was done. ”