38 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



[1896. 



(19). Aster CANEscENs var. viscosus (Nutt.) Gray. Fig. 3. At 



Las Cruces this is freely visited by P. 

 asteris. Two species of Aster which are 

 common at Las Cruces, A. spinosus and A. 

 hesperkis, have produced no Perdita. The 

 former is a weed of waste grounds, the 

 latter occurs on the acequia banks, so 

 they may not be natives of the immediate 

 region. It has occurred to me that by 

 watching the bees on a flower, some evi- 

 dence might be obtained as to the length 

 of time the flower has grown in the local- 

 ity. Thus, to take an extreme class of 

 cases, garden exotics are visited by com- 

 paratively few bees, and of course have 

 none peculiar to them, as P. asteris to 

 Asler caneseens var. 



(21). 



(22). 



(20). Lepachys tagetes ( James)Gray. 

 Visited by P. lepachidis ; also, at 

 Santa Fe, by Melissodes, Agaj)oste- 

 mo7i, Halictus and Bemhex. 



-/ffScfe 



Helianthus annuus L. Fig. 4. 

 The sunflower is the flower of P. 

 albipennis ; very rarely a verbesince 

 may also be found upon it. Other 

 sunflower bees ixrePanurgiis,3Ielis- 

 sodes and Andrena, all at Las 

 Cruces. Phymata fasciata also 

 occurs on the sunflower heads. 

 It is to be noted that the Andrena 

 found on sunflowers at Las Cruces 

 is not the same as Mr. Robertson's 

 Illinois A. heliantld. 



Verbesina encelioides (Cav.) 

 Gray. Fig. 5. At Las Cruces 

 this produces commonly P. ver- 

 besinoi, rarely beata, perpulchra Fig. 4. 



and albovittata, and occasionally or accidentally albipennis, 

 var. vagans, latieeps and fallax. In October I noticed Apis 

 mellifica visiting the flowers in numbers ; the honey-bee flies 

 longer and visits more species of flowers than any wild bee 

 I know, and m^ust surely prove rather a serious competitor 

 of the wild species. The competition would be most severely 

 felt, of course, in those years when, owing to unfavor- 

 able weather, the flowers were less numerous than ordinary. 



