INSHCT VISITORS OF FLOWERS IN NEW MEXICO. 19 
(5.) Observations should be made at different dates during the 
period of blooming of the plant studied; the visitors at one period 
may be very different from those at another. 
(6.) In every case it is important to state the names of the 
insects observed. This is perhaps the chief stumbling-block to 
observers. Even H. Muller in Europe had to leave many of his 
captures unrecorded, because he could not find out their names. 
In other countries, where much less is known about the insect 
fauna, and many of the species are undescribed, the difficulty is 
much increased. 
The object of the present series of papers is to put on record 
a number of new observations made in New Mexico, adding such 
comments as the facts may suggest. It will be necessary to 
introduce more botanical matter than usually appears in the 
pages of ‘ The Zoologist’; in fact, similar papers have appeared 
in botanical journals, their botanical aspect being as important as 
the entomological. 
(1.) Ranunculus cymbalaria, Pursh.—A good patch in flower by the Rio 
Grande, Mesilla, April 19th, 1897. An ochreous Thrips was pretty com- 
mon on the flowers, but no other insects, except a single specimen of the 
small fly, Hugnoriste occidentalis, Coquillett. 
(2.) Argemone platyceras, L. & O.(Papaveracea).—At Santa Fe, Aug. 
3rd, in the afternoon, found many plants with closed flowers, inside which 
were numbers of bees, all more or less sleepy, crawling but not flying when 
disturbed. A beetle, determined by Capt. Casey as Carpophilus palli- 
_ pennis, was also common in the flowers. The bees were as follows :— 
(a.) Podalirius occidentalis (Cresson). — Twenty-eight specimens. I 
have never taken this on any other flower. 
(b.) Diadasia enavata (Cresson).—Three. Visits other flowers. 
(c.) Melissodes menuacha, Cresson.—Seven. 
(d.) M. agilis var. aurigenia (Cresson).—Nine. 
(e.) Andrena argemonis, Ckll—Two. This species was described as 
new (1896) from these specimens, and no others are yet known. 
One specimen of an Otiorhynchid beetle, Peritaxia hispida, Lec., was also 
taken from the flowers. The consideration of the above case suggests that 
flowers which are not particularly attractive to bees when open may gain 
something by affording good sleeping places when closed in dull weather. 
The bees, when the flowers opened, would fly away, carrying more or less 
pollen with them, which they might transfer to other flowers. This idea 
did not occur to me when the observations were made, so I neglected to note 
the facts which might confirm it. 
