THE YOUNG 



NATURA.LIST. 



31 



butterflies, and, of course, usually associate 

 both with the summer. Doubtless, how- 

 ever, most of your readers are acquainted 

 with the fact ; but, perhaps, a few notes and 

 observations, on a night's outing at this dull 

 season of the year, may not be altogether 

 unintereresting to some of the younger 

 readers of the Young Naturalist. On the 

 5th instant, at about 7 p.m., myself and two 

 friends found ourselves at Shipley Glen, a 

 lovely little spot some two or three miles 

 from Bradford ; and which is a favourite 

 resort for thousands of Bradford people 

 during the summer months, but visited in 

 winter only by the lover of nature — moth 

 hunting, pupae digging, or observing the 

 habits of our resident birds, being favourite 

 occupations. During the months of May 

 and June last, the larvae of Hybernida were 

 observed in thousands, hanging by their 

 silken webs from every tree, every green 

 leaf of which they had devoured ; thousands 

 must have died of starvation, and others 

 retired for pupation before they were full 

 fed. From this great abundance of larva, 

 we anticipated an equal number of imagines, 

 nor were we in any way disappointed, As 

 soon as we entered the wood and lighted our 

 lamps, we could see as far as the light 

 would reach, hundreds of moths resting on 

 the otherwise bare branches. In point of 

 numbers H. aurantiaria carried off the palm. 

 This species is pretty constant to the type, 

 the only deviations from it, which I have 

 seen are specimens in which the space between 

 the second line and the row of dots on the 

 hind margin is filled up with darker, thus 

 forming a band. Numerically C. boreata will 

 stand next ; out of the thousands of speci- 

 mens of this species which I have seen at 

 different times, I never saw the slightest 

 departure from the normal form : and the 

 same may be said of C. brumata, which was 

 not so common as either of the two last 

 mentioned. Although the larvae of that 

 beautiful and most variable moth H. defoli- 



aria was more abundant in spring than any 

 of the others mentioned, the imagines were 

 not so plentiful as might have been expected, 

 and many of them considerably dwarfed, 

 some not larger than a good-sized boreata ; 

 these facts seem to verify the statement 

 made above, that a great number must have 

 died of starvation, and others pupated long 

 before they had arrived at maturity. 

 Taking all the species which I enumerated 

 together, I never saw such a vast assemblage 

 of moths in my life, every branch, every 

 frond of the common brake, and almost 

 every blade of grass were tenanted by them ; 

 and when we consider that these were only 

 the male portion, the number must have 

 been enormous. The apterous females re- 

 quire looking for, we found them most abun- 

 dant creeping about the trunks of trees. I re- 

 member last year, my friend Mr. Firth, and 

 myself found about eighty females of defoli- 

 aria, in one night in this way. Nothing 

 more of any importance was noticed except 

 an occasional faded specimen of 0. dilutata 

 or X. ferruginea, which had not yet suc- 

 cumbed to 



" Chill November's Hurly blast," 

 or, an odd specimen of C. vaccinii, would be 

 seen regaling himself on the trunk of an 

 oak, ere he retires for his winter's slumber, 

 to re-appear in early spring with other mem- 

 bers of the genus Hybernia — progemmaria 

 and leucophearia — when his present compan- 

 ions have ceased to exist, with the exception, 

 perhaps, of a lingering brumata, which has 

 braved the storms and blasts of winter. 

 The only apparatus necessary is a lamp 

 and a good supply of chip boxes, except the 

 night be very close and warm, then they are 

 apt to fly at your approach, and the net 

 becomes an useful acquisition. To all those 

 who have not yet had a night's outing at this 

 year, I would say. Be off into the woods at 

 once, and experience for yourselves the 

 pleasures that are to be derived from "A 

 night's moth hunting in November." 



