Pollen Load (Pollen Basket)
Lexikon
The pollen load is the pollen package a forager bee carries on the outside of her hind legs.
The pollen load is the pollen package a forager bee carries on the outside of her hind legs. The pollen first catches in the body hair, is combed out with the legs and then pressed into the basket on the tibia of the third pair of legs. To make the package hold together, it is moistened with a little nectar or honey from the honey stomach and with saliva.
A load weighs up to about ten milligrams and consists of an enormous number of individual pollen grains. Two loads are produced per foraging trip, for which the bee must visit numerous flowers, which are pollinated in the process at the same time.
The color of the loads reveals which flow is currently underway. District beekeeping associations and institutes publish pollen color charts for this purpose. The color is not entirely unambiguous, however, because moistening with honey or nectar can change the shade.
The basket is a distinctive feature. It is found in only a few groups of bees, alongside honey bees for example in bumblebees. Most wild bees instead carry pollen in a belly brush or in a collecting brush on the leg.