Honey bee rear leg

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 1:06 am

Rear leg of a honey bee. It is in this joint where pollen will be crushed and then collected against the leg. Here you can see the rake and auricle of the "pollen packer" (at lower side of joint), and the pollen brush on the first tarsal segment (right side of picture).

Olympus 4x S Plan Apo, Canon 350D. 36 image stack with Helicon Focus.

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 3:23 am

Petty neat there Charlie.

I am assuming those spherical objects scattered about over the leg are bits of...pollen?

Bruce Williams · Post by **Bruce Williams** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 4:07 am

Fascinating photograph Charles. Technical excellence goes without saying, but it's also an image that makes you want to really LOOK CLOSE - appreciate the beauty, work out functionality and just marvel at just how amazing it ALL is!

Bruce

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 10:08 am

Bruce said it all rather Eloquently. I can say no more (fantastic job on this picture Charles)

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 10:33 am

Thanks guys!

Ken... there are a few isolated pollen grains on this leg. I had posted a view of a bee's leg back in the old forum that was loaded with pollen and also labeled the "parts":
http://www.photomacrography1.net/forum/ ... hlight=bee

It is interesting to compare it to this "clean" shot.

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 4:00 pm

Boy that is an old post, Frez is on there.

Somehow I managed missing that post. Looks quite textbook and an excellent job of putting it together there Charlie.

Wonder what ever happened to Frez?

svalley · Post by **svalley** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 11:40 am

Wow, another great shot, Charles! The black BKG really makes this stunning. This puts your close-up detail of the pollen rake in context for me. I am always struck when I look at the fine structure of insects, just how fine tuned form and function are in these organisms.