The term
scopa (Latin: a broom) is used to refer to any of a number of different modifications on the body of a
non-parasitic bee that form a
pollen-carrying apparatus. In most bees, the scopa is simply a particularly dense mass of elongated, often branched, hairs (or
setae) on the hind leg. When present on the hind legs, the modified hairs are, at a minimum, on the tibia, but some bees also have modified hairs on the femur and/or trochanter. A few bees have, in addition to the leg hairs, many modified hairs on the ventral surface of the abdomen which are also used in pollen transport; there is one family of bees,
Megachilidae, in which the modified leg hairs are absent, and the scopa is limited to the abdominal hairs (see photo). In the familiar
honey bees and
bumblebees, the scopa is replaced by the
pollen basket (corbicula).