The Behavior of the Honey Bee in Pollen Collecting — John Shaqi
The Behavior of the Honey Bee in Pollen CollectingCasteel, Dana Brackenridge
Science
The Behavior of the Honey Bee in Pollen Collecting
Casteel, Dana Brackenridge
Honeybee -- Behavior; Pollen
Sladen's different interpretations of the pollen-moistening process
are rather confusing, and it is difficult to distinguish between what
he states as observed facts and what he puts forward as likely
hypotheses. He agrees with me in his observation that all of the legs
become moist in the region of their brushes and also in his
supposition that this moisture is transferred to them from the mouth.
In this moistening process my observations show that the fluid
concerned is passed backward by the contact, of the middle-leg brushes
with the wet foreleg brushes and that the middle-leg brushes in turn
convey moisture to the plantæ as they rub upon them. I am also
convinced that the wet pollen grains furnish additional moisture to
the brushes as they pass backward, and this is particularly true in
the case of the extremely moist surfaces of the auricles and the
pollen combs of the planta, since here moisture is pressed from the
pollen upon these areas. The pollen upon the fore and middle leg
brushes is not always "dry" even in "a relative sense."
In describing pollen manipulation several writers state that dry
pollen is picked up by the brushes of the legs and is carried forward
to the mouth, there moistened (according to some, masticated), and is
then carried backward by the middle legs for loading. Obviously such
accounts do not apply to cases in which all of the pollen is collected
by mouthparts and forelegs. Do they apply in cases where much pollen
falls on the body and limbs? Without doubt a certain amount of this
free pollen is brought forward when the middle legs, bearing some of
it, sweep forward and downward over the forelegs, mouthparts, and
breast. However, it does not appear to the writer that this dry pollen
is carried to the mouth for the specific purpose of moistening it, or
that it is essential to its moistening that it be brought in contact
with the mouth. Some of it touches the moist hairs on the forelegs and
breast and is moistened by contact. All that remains on the brushes of
the middle legs secures moisture from these brushes or from wet pollen
which the brushes collect from the mouthparts or forelegs. The
supposed necessity of carrying forward pollen to the mouth for
moistening is a delusion. Some is accidentally brought forward and
into contact with the mouth and gets wet, but the process is not
essential.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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