The mode of wetting the pollen is not clear. Wolff says it is done by an exudation from the tibia; H. Müller by admixture of nectar from the bee's mouth. The latter view is more probably correct.
In studying the proboscis the student will do well to take a Bombus as an example; its anatomy being more easily deciphered than that of the honey-bee.
Leuckart proposed the term lingula; but the word gives rise to the impression that it is a mistake for either lingua or ligula. Packard calls the part "hypopharynx."
For figures and descriptions of the proboscides of British bees, refer to E. Saunders, Jour. Linn. Soc. xxiii. 1890, pp. 410-432, plates III.-X.: and for details of the minute structure and function to Cheshire, Bees and Bee-keeping, vol. i.
Breithaupt, Arch. Naturges. lii. Bd. i. 1886, p. 47.