Small loads on tiny legs

In honeybees and bumblebees, pollen can accumulate on a part of the hind legs adapted for carrying it. Other bees use groups of hairs on their legs or beneath their abdomen. The entomologists interviewed by the Gulbenkian explain that some grains are left along the way during flower visits. Carrying food for offspring is thus connected with pollination. This is a general explanation, not the identification of an insect observed in the municipality. The load’s colour also varies: the specialists mention yellow, red or blue pollen, depending on its plant of origin.

The scopa is the group of hairs that works like a carrying brush. The source also mentions groups that transport pollen in part of the digestive tract and others that use other bees’ nests. Not every relationship between a bee and pollen therefore appears as a visible load on the legs. What we see during a flower visit is only part of the story.