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

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

on the hind legs of the female of certain species of

bee Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamil ...

s. They use the structure in harvesting

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by most types of flowers of seed plants for the purpose of sexual reproduction. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced Gametophyte#Heterospory, microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm ...

and carrying it to the nest or hive where it is used as food by the colony. Bee species with no pollen baskets have scopae, which fulfil a similar role.

Etymology

There was little formal description of the corbicula before

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

explained the biological function of

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

Neo-Latin Neo-LatinSidwell, Keith ''Classical Latin-Medieval Latin-Neo Latin'' in ; others, throughout. (also known as New Latin and Modern Latin) is the style of written Latin used in original literary, scholarly, and scientific works, first in Italy d ...

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 Beekeeping (or apiculture, from ) is the maintenance of bee colonies, commonly in artificial beehives. Honey bees in the genus '' Apis'' are the most commonly kept species but other honey producing bees such as '' Melipona'' stingless bees are ...

, 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 "pollen basket, corbiculate" (pollen basket) bees—bumblebees, honey bees, euglossini, orchid bees, stingless bees, and the extinct ge ...

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 mainland Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the ...

bumblebees A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only Extant taxon, extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct r ...

stingless bee Stingless bees (SB), sometimes called stingless honey bees or simply meliponines, are a large group of bees (from about 462 to 552 described species), comprising the Tribe (biology), tribe Meliponini (or subtribe Meliponina according to other aut ...

s, and orchid bees. 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 (; ) is an Italian card game, and one of the three major national card games in Italy, the others being and . It is also popular in Argentina and Brazil, brought in by Italian diaspora, Italian immigrants, mostly in the variation. is also p ...

, 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

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 species of 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 pl ...

nectar Nectar is a viscous, sugar-rich liquid produced by Plant, plants in glands called nectaries, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollination, pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to an ...

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 Pollen, flower pollen packed by worker honeybees, and used as the primary food source for the hive. It consists of simple sugars, protein, Mineral (nutrie ...

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, this ...

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

References

{{reflist, 30em Bees Insect anatomy