Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union: Annual Report , 1932. 41 
near Guisborough ; Redmire in Upper Wensleydale ; and Keld in 
Upper Swaledale. 
Hymenoptera (Rosse Butterfield) : Aculeata Hymenoptera. — 
The summer months were apparently decidedly more favourable than the 
•corresponding months of the past two or three years, but, nevertheless, 
insects of this group have been far from common. This may be due to a 
relatively few number of pupae due to emerge this year. The number 
of last year’s mud nests of Odynerus on walls, rocks, etc., was lower than 
I have known for twenty years. 
Andrena clarkella appeared on Austwick Moss as early as March 25th, 
but no Nomada inquilines were noticed about its burrows. Mr. W. J. Ford- 
ham saw this species and Nomada leucopthalma on April 27th at Aller- 
thorpe. Andrena sericea proved the most abundant spring bee. A variety 
•of A . chrysosceles occurred on raspberry bloom near Coniston in earlyjuly. 
I doubt whether the nest of Bombus soroensis has been found or recorded 
in this country, and on August 18th I took an opportunity, when in Grass 
Wood, of examining one under a root of beech near the surface. The nest, 
a little larger than a cricket ball, was formed of cut, dry fine grass, with 
strands of sheep’s wool worked in the lining. I was disappointed in not 
finding Psithyrus distinctus var. subrufipes , which is supposed to be its 
inquiline. An interesting find was the curious and rare Rhopalum 
tibialis Fab., near Ryhill, in June. Both Mr. J. Wood and I secured 
examples of both sexes. Mr. Fordham found males of Andrena fucata 
at Allerthorpe on June 16th, and it has been seen in two or three places 
in the West Riding. 
Lepidoptera : York District (A. Smith) : — Sallows did not offer 
much material in the spring, perhaps the best things coming to the 
bloom were T. populeti one specimen, P. rubricosa and T. munda more 
freely. T. pulverulenta plentiful. The cold about this time kept 
larvae back, and not till early June did the Sallow -feeding larvae show 
much signs of getting any larger. On the 8th June I took a number of 
X . fulvago larvae only a quarter of an inch long ; this time last year 
they were full fed. C. viminalis larvae were plentiful in the various 
Sallows growing in the Strensal! area ; the same day H . tenebrata were 
flying in the afternoon by the roadside. 
On Strensall Common during the evening of June nth Fox Moths 
were flying in numbers and kept on doing so in spite of a thick ground 
fog setting down, obliterating everything from view. Nothing else 
was flying during the fog. 
One of my best captures of the season were two specimens of 
E. punctaria (Maiden’s Blush) at Buttercrambe on June 14th, one a 
slightly -worn male, the other a fine female. This is the first time I 
have seen the species in Yorkshire. 
At Newton Dale on June 25th quite a number of interesting butterflies 
were in evidence. N. lucina plentiful, females mostly and getting a bit 
worn, this date being rather late for them. L. astrarche were in fine 
fresh condition and numerous A . selene and A . euphrosyne were both 
flying about. L. cegon was as plentiful as usual. A. candidata fairly 
common among the Hazel, but the best capture of the day was a specimen 
of N. pulveraria (Barred Umber) by Mr. Head, of Burniston. This insect 
has not before been recorded in our York area. Larvae of B. sphinx 
were beaten from an oak tree. This is also interesting as the insect has 
not been found by many of our Yorkshire collectors and, up to this 
record, has not been found in our area except by the Rev. C. D. Ash, 
somewhere near Tadcaster. 
On June 29th at Buttercrambe I took a specimen of H . albicillata 
and a caterpillar of T. crataegi ; two crataegi larvae occurred at Newton 
Dale in 1931, both unfortunately ichneumoned. I have not heard of this 
species before in our area. 
I 933 Feb. 1 
