78 THE ZO0O0OLOGIST. 
THE INSECT VISITORS OF FLOWERS IN 
NEW MEXICO.—I. 
By T.. D. A. CockERELE, 
Entomologist of the New Mexico Agricultural Experiment Station. 
Wuite much has been written on the relations between 
insects and flowers, it must be confessed that the information 
we possess on this fascinating subject is fragmentary indeed in 
comparison with what might be known; in other words, there is 
no locality where flowers grow and insects fly in which new and 
interesting observations may not be made, while there are whole 
regions from which we have practically no records. 
Hermann Muller, in his ‘ Fertilisation of Flowers,’ gives what 
might at first sight seem a very complete array of facts, but we 
find him strongly insisting on the incompleteness of his researches. 
In America the subject has only been seriously attacked by one 
observer, Mr. Charles Robertson, whose observations are con- 
fined to Illinois and Florida. 
The subject is more complicated than might at first be 
imagined. Repeated observation only confirms the validity of 
the following rules :— 
(1.) Observations made. in one year should be repeated in 
other years, as the results of different years may greatly differ. 
(2.) Observations made on a plant in one locality should be 
repeated in other localities throughout the range of the plant, 
as the insect visitors are often different in different parts of the 
plant’s range. 
(3.) Observations made on plants growing in cultivation, away 
from their natural habitat, prove little regarding the natural 
visitors of the plants. 
(4.) Observations on the Honey-bee prove little regarding 
the actions of wild bees; each species of bee must be observed 
separately, its habits cannot be certainly inferred from observa- 
tions on other species. 
