The pollen basket or corbicula (plural corbiculae) is part of the

tibia The tibia (; ), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outside of the tibia); it connects ...

on the hind legs of certain species of bees. They use the structure in harvesting pollen and carrying it to the nest or hive. Other species of bees have scopae instead.

Etymology

There was little formal description of the corbicula before

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...

explained the biological function of pollen in the mid-18th century. In English the first edition of ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' described the structure in 1771 without giving it any special name. The second edition, 1777, refers to the corbicula simply as the "basket". By 1802 William Kirby had introduced the

New Latin New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy ...

term into English. He had borrowed it, with acknowledgement, from Réaumur. Like other Latin anatomical terms, this had the advantages of specificity, international acceptability, and culture neutrality. By 1820 the term ''pollen-basket'' seems to have gained acceptance in beekeeping, extracted in though a century later a compendium of entomological terminology recognised ''pollen-plate'' and without including the term ''pollen-basket''.Smith, John. B. Explanation of terms used in entomology. Pub: Brooklyn Entomological Society 1906. May be downloaded from

/ref> A century later, the authors of " Augustus Daniel Imms, Imms" included only the terms scopa and corbicula in the index, with ''pollen basket'' in the text. is a diminutive of , a basket or pannier.Ainsworth, Robert; Eds: Morell, Thomas; Carey, John , An Abridgment of Ainsworth's Latin Dictionary, 13th ed. , London 1834 It is the singular, with plural , but since at least some authors have thought to be the plural of a non-existent neuter form .

Structure and function

Bees in four tribes of the family

Apidae Apidae is the largest family within the superfamily Apoidea, containing at least 5700 species of bees. The family includes some of the most commonly seen bees, including bumblebees and honey bees, but also includes stingless bees (also used for ...

, subfamily

Apinae The Apinae are the subfamily that includes the majority of bees in the family Apidae. It includes the familiar " corbiculate" (pollen basket) bees—bumblebees, honey bees, orchid bees, stingless bees, Africanized bees, and the extinct genus '' ...

have corbiculae: the

honey bee A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus ''Apis'' of the bee clade, all native to Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the current cosm ...

s, bumblebees,

stingless bee Stingless bees, sometimes called stingless honey bees or simply meliponines, are a large group of bees (about 550 described species), comprising the tribe Meliponini (or subtribe Meliponina according to other authors). They belong in the family A ...

s, and

orchid bees The tribe Euglossini, in the subfamily Apinae, commonly known as orchid bees or euglossine bees, are the only group of corbiculate bees whose non-parasitic members do not all possess eusocial behavior. Description Most of the tribe's species ...

. The corbicula is a polished cavity surrounded by a fringe of hairs, into which the bee collects the pollen; most other bees possess a structure called the

scopa ''Scopa'' (; literally "broom") is an Italian card game, and one of the three major national card games in Italy, the others being '' Briscola'' and ''Tresette''. It is also popular in Argentina and Brazil, brought in by Italian immigrants, most ...

, which is similar in function, but is a dense mass of branched hairs into which pollen is pressed, with pollen grains held in place in the narrow spaces between the hairs. A honey bee moistens the forelegs with its protruding tongue and brushes the pollen that has collected on its head, body and forward appendages to the hind legs. The pollen is transferred to the pollen comb on the hind legs and then combed, pressed, compacted, and transferred to the corbicula on the outside surface of the tibia of the hind legs. In ''Apis'' species, a single hair functions as a pin that secures the middle of the pollen load. Either

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

or nectar is used to moisten the dry pollen, producing the product known as

bee pollen Bee pollen, also known as bee bread and ambrosia, is a ball or pellet of field-gathered flower pollen packed by worker honeybees, and used as the primary food source for the hive. It consists of simple sugars, protein, minerals and vitamins ...

or bee bread. The mixing of the pollen with nectar or honey changes the color of the pollen. The color of the pollen can help identify the

pollen source The term pollen source is often used in the context of beekeeping and refers to flowering plants as a source of pollen for bees or other insects. Bees collect pollen as a protein source to raise their brood. For the plant, the pollinizer, th ...

.Dorothy Hodges, ''The Pollen Loads of the Honeybee'', published by Bee Research Association, 1952

References

{{reflist, 30em Bees Insect anatomy