THE SECOND AND THIRD PAIR OF LEGS
The second pair of legs is slightly longer than the front ones. Each is
furnished with a kind of stiff spike with which the wings are cleaned.
The third pair of legs are perhaps the most interesting of all. They
are the longest, and the hairs for pollen gathering are far more
numerous upon them than on the other legs. If we look at (_a_) Plate X.
we see that there is an opening in the leg around which is set a row
of spikes. This is shown more plainly in (_b_) Plate X. As the joints
work on a kind of hinge, these spikes act like pincers; they are known
as the wax-pincers and will be mentioned later. Another interesting
feature is the _corbicula_, or pollen basket, which is the receptacle
in which the pollen is carried from the flowers to the hive. You will
see from the picture of the worker bee, in Plate V., that the large
joints of the hind legs are much broader than the others. They are
also hollowed out, and around each edge are numbers of spike-like
hairs, which curl inwards over the hollow. These make a sort of basket,
and I am sorry that I am not able to show you a photograph of this
interesting feature, but it is a most difficult subject of which to
obtain a picture. However, I have made this little drawing, which
perhaps will help to give you some idea of its nature.
[Illustration: POLLEN BASKET]
I should tell you that the pollen basket is situated on the outside
of the leg, that is, the side which is away from the bee’s body. On
the inside are several combs, which are made up of rows of spike-like
hairs. When the thorax has become covered with pollen the bee uses
these hairs to comb it out; this it does by crossing its legs below the
body. It is interesting to notice that neither the queen nor the drone
has pollen baskets.
[Illustration: PLATE XI
(_a_)
From a photograph by] [E. Hawks
Wing
(_b_)
From a photo-micrograph by] [E. Hawks
Fine Needle compared with Sting]