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
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. As is shown by the analyses of corbicular pollen and of stored
pollen, certain substances are added to the pollen after the
collecting bee leaves it in the cell. Sugar is certainly added, and it
is generally supposed that secretions from some of the salivary glands
are mixed with the pollen after deposition. It appears probable that
the stored pollen or "beebread" is changed somewhat in chemical
composition through the action of the fluids which have been added to
it, either during the process of collection, at the time of packing,
or later.
SUMMARY.
Pollen may be collected by the worker bee upon its mouthparts, upon
the brushes of its legs, and upon the hairy surface of its body. When
the bee collects from small flowers, or when the supply is not
abundant, the mouthparts are chiefly instrumental in obtaining the
pollen.
The specialized leg brushes of the worker are used to assemble the
pollen, collecting it from the body parts to which it first adheres
and transporting it to the pollen baskets or corbiculæ of the hind
legs. In this manipulation the forelegs gather pollen from the
mouthparts and head; the middle legs, from the forelegs and from the
thorax; the hind legs, from the middle legs and from the abdomen.
The pollen baskets are not loaded by the crossing over of one hind leg
upon the other or to any great extent by the crossing of the middle
legs over the corbiculæ. The middle legs deposit their loads upon the
pollen combs of the hind plantæ, and the plantæ, in turn, transfer the
pollen of one leg to the pecten comb of the other, the pecten of one
leg scraping downward over the pollen comb of the opposite leg. (See
fig. 7.) A little pollen is loaded directly from the middle legs into
the baskets when these legs are used to pat down the pollen masses.
(See fig. 6.)
Aside from the foregoing exception, all of the pollen which reaches
the baskets enters them from below, since it is first secured by the
pecten combs, and is then pushed upward by the impact of the rising
auricles, which squeeze it against the distal ends of the tibiæ and
force it on into the baskets to meet that which has gone before.
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.
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