Scanning electron micrograph of the pollen basket of a honey bee, Apis mellifera. The picture is a side view of a honey bee, with a mass (yellow) of pollen grains attached to the bristles of the tibia of a hind leg. Individual pollen grains are visible on the hind leg metatarsus ( below, to left) and the tibia and metatarsus of the mid leg (below, to right). Pollen collection by honey bees involves a complex series of co-ordinated leg movements; the forelegs brush pollen from the head and front thorax, the middle legs from the rear thorax, and the hind legs from the abdomen. The pollen is gathered on to the middle legs, then moistened and compressed on to the metatarsus of the hind leg. Finally, the pollen mass is impaled on to long bristles on the tibia, as here. This allows the bee to carry large amounts of pollen to feed its young on each return flight to the hive. Mag x 17 at 10x8