. Langstroth on the hive & honey bee. Bees. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. 23 dows by the same process. It was formerly asserted that insects cling to the smooth surfaces by air suction, but the above explanation is correct, and you can actually see "the footprints of a fly" on a pane of glass, with the help of a microscope, remnants of the "clammy" substance being quite discernible. By this ingenious arrangement, bees can walk indifferently upon almost anything, since wherever the claws fail, the pulvilli take their place. 53. "But another contrivance, equally beautiful
. Langstroth on the hive & honey bee. Bees. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. 23 dows by the same process. It was formerly asserted that insects cling to the smooth surfaces by air suction, but the above explanation is correct, and you can actually see "the footprints of a fly" on a pane of glass, with the help of a microscope, remnants of the "clammy" substance being quite discernible. By this ingenious arrangement, bees can walk indifferently upon almost anything, since wherever the claws fail, the pulvilli take their place. 53. "But another contrivance, equally beautiful, remains to be noticed. The pulvillus is carried folded in the middle (as at C, fig. 13), but opens out when applied to a surface, for it has at its upper part an elastic and curved rod (cr) which straightens as the pulvillus is pressed down, C and D, fig. 13, making this clear. The flattened-out pulvillus thus holds strongly while pulled, by the weight of the bee, along the sur- face, to which it adheres, but comes up at once if lifted and rolled off from its opposite sides, just as we should peel a wet postage stamp from its envelope. The bee, then, is held se- curely till it attempts to lift the leg, when it is freed at once; and, by this exquisite yet simple plan, it can fix and release each foot at least twenty times per ;—(Cheshire.). Fig. 13. BEE'S FOOT IN CLIMBING^ SHOWING ACTION OP PULVILLUS. (Magnified 30 times. From Cheshire.) A, position of the foot in climbing slippery surface or glass; pv, pul- villus ; ih, feeling hairs; an, anguiculus, or claw ; t, tarsal joint. B, position of the foot in climbing rough surface. C, section of pulvillus just touching flat surface; cr, curved rod. D, pulvillus applied to surface. 54. The legs of bees, like all other parts of their body, are covered with hairs of varied shapes and sizes, the descrip- tion of which is beyond the limits of this work. We will eon-. Please note that these images are extracted from scanne
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectbees, bookyear1915
