Scopa or Corbicula? - _TNY_4230
There are two kinds of pollen baskets on the hind legs of bees. The honey bees, bumblebees, stingless bees, and orchid bees have a cavity surrounded by a fringe of hairs where they collect the pollen and this is called a corbicula (plural: corbiculae).
Other bees either don't have pollen baskets at all (like cuckoo bees) or they do, but in form of a dense mass of hairs into which the bee mashes the pollen. These are known as scopae (singular: scopa).
Then there are Megachilidae bees (mason bees, leafcutter bees and more) which carry pollen using special hairs on the underside of their abdomen.
Bees in the Hylaeus genus (sweat bees and masked bees) are considered more primitive and carry pollen internally in a crop.
The somewhat unfocused visitor to the Forbes' glory-of-the-snow (Scilla forbesii) in this shot is a European honey bee (Apis mellifera) and if you look at the leg, the corbicula is showing quite well.
Also showing is that the pollen is blue which means she has visited the blue wood squill (Scilla siberica) up to the right in the shot or other of the same kind as they are the ones with blue pollen.
Scopa or Corbicula? - _TNY_4230
There are two kinds of pollen baskets on the hind legs of bees. The honey bees, bumblebees, stingless bees, and orchid bees have a cavity surrounded by a fringe of hairs where they collect the pollen and this is called a corbicula (plural: corbiculae).
Other bees either don't have pollen baskets at all (like cuckoo bees) or they do, but in form of a dense mass of hairs into which the bee mashes the pollen. These are known as scopae (singular: scopa).
Then there are Megachilidae bees (mason bees, leafcutter bees and more) which carry pollen using special hairs on the underside of their abdomen.
Bees in the Hylaeus genus (sweat bees and masked bees) are considered more primitive and carry pollen internally in a crop.
The somewhat unfocused visitor to the Forbes' glory-of-the-snow (Scilla forbesii) in this shot is a European honey bee (Apis mellifera) and if you look at the leg, the corbicula is showing quite well.
Also showing is that the pollen is blue which means she has visited the blue wood squill (Scilla siberica) up to the right in the shot or other of the same kind as they are the ones with blue pollen.