1896.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 37 



ties of a pretty Chalcidid, Orasema viridis Ashraead (Det. 

 Dep. Agric). The latter is new to the U. S. Fauna, having 

 been only lately described from a specimen found at Tepic, 

 Mexico (Proc. Cal. Ac. Sci., 1895, p. 553). 



At Las Cruces I found on B. lorightii plenty of P. luteola 

 especially, accompanied by semicrocea, oeneijrons, phymatce, 

 fallax, higelovi(je, nilidella, austini, while cladothrieis, pulch- 

 rior, macidipes and pellucida were occasional. Here the 

 flowers are peopled by the same species of ant, Tapinovia 

 anale Andre (det. Ernest Andre) as was found on them at 

 Albuquerque ; its color is such as to render it inconspicuous. 

 Three species of beetles are particularly noticed on the flow- 

 ers, Chauliognathus Scutellaria Lee, Crossidius pulchelhis 

 Lee, and Clems abruptus Lee. (det. Wickham), of which 

 the first two are yellow like the flowers, with some black ; 

 and the last (appearing in October) is beautifully marked 

 with red, resembling at a glance Sphcerophthalma heterochroa, 

 which is found in the same vicinity, though never on flow- 

 ers. Sundry Coccinellidje, Chrysomelidse and Bruchidre also 

 frequent the flowers. Some Heteropterous insects found on 

 the flowers are colored yellow to escape observation ; one of 

 these, Phymata fasciata, is predaceous, and a serious enemy of 

 the bees. So there are also yellow or yellowish Thoniisidse, 

 and certain Bombyliidie and Trypetidse among the Diptera 

 which visit the Bigelovia flowers are more or less strongly 

 yellow — more especially the beautiful little Phthiria sulphu- 

 rea Loew (see Psyche, January, 1895, p, 188). Among 

 Hymenoptera, besides various bees, are found several Phil- 

 anthidpe, Scoliidse, Eumenidpe, Chalcididse, Chrysidida^, etc., 

 some of the species being new or rare in collections, for ex- 

 ample, Aphilanthops taurulus Ckll., A. quadrinotahis Ashm. 

 (heretofore only known from a specimen found at Denver, 

 Colo.), Acanthochalcis nigricans Cam., and Chrysis mesillce 

 Ckll. The genus Bigelovia belongs especially to the arid 

 region, but there are two species in Ecuador. 



(17). Chrysopsis villosa (Pursh) Nutt. This is properly a 

 mountain plant (abundant, for example, in the mid-alpine 

 of Colorado), but several vigorous plants are growing in a 

 dry watercourse near the N. M. Agricultural College, the 

 seeds having doubtless been washed from the Organ Mount- 

 ains. On one of these I caught the unique of P. vespertilio. 

 At Santa Fe I watched some Chrysopsis villosa, but only got 

 one specimen of an Antlwphora. 



(18). Aster ericoides var. villosus (Michx.) Torn and Gray. 

 Mr. Robertson reports this as visited by P. octomaculata. 



