166 



The Naturalist. 



With regard to abundance in tMs species, some degree of explanation 

 may be afforded by the knowledge we possess of its habits. Linnteus 

 says, " this is the most destructive of our Swedish caterpillars, laying 

 waste our meadows and annihilating the crop of hay." It appears to 

 have the habit of occasionally assembling in vast numbers in the 

 perfect state, and a very interesting account of such an occurrence is 

 given in Newman's " British Moths." It is said to have been very 

 abundant in Tatton Park, Cheshire, in 1880, and it is very possible 

 that it may have assembled in great numbers near Clitheroe in that 

 year without attracting the observation of entomologists, the females 

 remaining to deposit their eggs. 



There are other insects which sometimes assemble in vast numbers. 

 I have more than once seen an immense swarm of ants on the wing, 

 but was too glad to be able to get out of their way, rather than wait 

 to ascertain their object. 



(To he continued.) 



Sljort p:0fes anil (^xm\t%, . 



CoRRECTioisr. — We regret that an extraordinary error crept into our 

 last (April) number. On pages 144 and 145 Mr. Cooke's paper " Con- 

 tribution to a list of the ' Hymenoptera ' of Lancashire and Cheshire," 

 should have been " Contribution to a list of the ' Hemiptera ' of Lan- 

 cashire and Cheshire. 



The Lesser Horse-Shoe Bat near Ripon, an addition to the 

 Yorkshire Fauna. — I have to record another interesting addition to the 

 Yorkshire county-list of bats. It is the Lesser Horse-shoe Bat {Rliinoloplins 

 hipposideros (Bechst.)), specimens of which I have received from Mr. 

 Henry Laver, F.L.S., of Colchester, in whose determination of the species 

 I fully coincide. They were sent him in Jan., 1876, by Mr. Jas. Ingleby, 

 of Eavestone, near Ripon, who had collected them in a cave there. Mr. 

 Ingleby writes me that he has from time to time, both in summer and 

 winter, found them quite numerously in a cave near Eavestone, called * 

 " Ned Hole," where he has seen them clinging to the rocks a dozen or 

 more at a time ; and he considers the species to be the prevalent one of 

 his neighbourhood. The district is wild and exposed, close to the moors, 

 and there is no protection or shelter from wind, except it be in a few 

 little valleys which afford the shelter in which the bats can feed. The 

 cave or hole in which these bats are found is about 700 feet above the 



