The status of Nathusius' pipistrelle (Pipistrellus nathusii Keyserling & Blasius, 1839) in the British Isles

There are now 91 records of individual Nathusius' pipistrelle Pipistrellus nathusii examined 'in the hand' in the U.K., and bat detector records from a further 36 localities in Britain and Ireland. These records are distributed throughout all months of the year with clear peaks in spring and autumn suggesting migratory movements into and out of the British Isles in autumn and spring, respectively. Three maternity colonies have been located and the species must now also be regarded as a resident breeding species in Britain and Ireland.

Exile or emigrant? Female ex-prisoners who left Ireland 1850-1921

In the popular mind, the concept of 'emigration' usually refers to people voluntarily leaving one country to go to another in search of a new and better life. It presupposes some degree of choice, although it is accepted that for many emigrants, such as those who left Ireland during the nineteenth century, there were few incentives to stay at home. Current scholarship on voluntary and forced movements of people demonstrates that the distinction between the categories of 'voluntary emigrant' and 'forced exile' is often blurred. Orm Overland's study of refugee communities in the United States highlights the fact that, although the differences between the 'emigrant' and the 'exile' may be clear in extreme cases, this is not always true, as there may be 'pressing political or economic reasons behind a decision to emigrate'. Migration scholars Jan Lucassen and Leo Lucassen also question the adequacy of conceptual models of migration based on what Lindsay Proudfoot and Dianne Hall refer to as the 'straightforward binarism between free and unfree emigration'. The questions raised by these scholars are very relevant to the study of Irish people who left their country during the second half of the nineteenth century immediately after they had been discharged from prison or from Dundrum. Their stories are discussed here against a background of substantial scholarship on emigration from Ireland and on the criminal justice system within Ireland. According to David Fitzpatrick, at least eight million men, women and children emigrated from Ireland between 1801 and 1921. This large-scale movement of people was generally characterised by the voluntary emigration of individuals who funded their own passages. However, it also included schemes of assisted emigration, funded variously by governments, landlords, the poor law authorities, earlier emigrants, and philanthropists. In addition, it included people who were transported from Ireland by means of the criminal justice system a practice that had originated in the seventeenth century. What is less well known is that after the end of transportation from Ireland to eastern Australia in 1853, to Bermuda in 1863 and to Western Australia in 1868, Irish convicts continued to be channelled towards emigration by being offered early release if they agreed to leave Ireland. These people, and especially the women among them, are the subject of this article.

DRAKULA HALÁLA (1921): The Cinema's First Dracula.

This essay covers the history of Károly Lajthay’s Hungarian film Drakula halála (1921), the cinema’s first adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula. The essay attempts to construct a production history of the film, as well as to create an accurate list of cast members and key filming locations. As Drakula halála is lost, the essay also features the very first English translation of an extremely rare 1924 Hungarian novella based on the film, which offers much insight into its narrative.

The last meal of the Late Ordovician mollusc ‘Helminthochiton’ thraivensis Reed, 1911, from the Lady Burn Starfish Beds, southwest Scotland.

An exceptional specimen of the Late Ordovician mollusc ‘Helminthochiton’ thraivensis Reed, from the Katian of the Lady Burn Starfish Beds, southwest Scotland, preserves gut contents that include nine pelmatozoan ossicles. These are interpreted as including two nodal and five intermodal columnals, and two radice ossicles from the attachment structure. The stem was cyclocyclic and heteromorphic, possibly N212. Radice ossicles were wider than the height of nodals, so radice scars must have encroached onto the latera of adjacent pluricolumnals. These features were compared with the 26 known pelmatozoan taxa from the Lady Burn Starfish Beds. Paracrinoids (one species) and glyptocystitid rhombiferans (six species) were discounted as prey because of their cemented attachment, and incorrect columnal morphology and lack of attachment, respectively. Of 19 species of crinoids, eight are discounted in which the column is pentagonal, tetragonal or unknown. Of the remaining eleven species, only the monobathrid camerate Macrostylocrinus cirrifer Ramsbottom satisfies all criteria for identification of the prey, including heteromorphy and radice scars encroaching adjacent internodals.

Climate change-linked range expansion of Nathusius' pipistrelle bat, Pipistrellus nathusii (Keyserling & Blasius, 1839)

Aim To examine the effect of climate change on the occurrence and distribution of Pipistrellus nathusii (Nathusius' pipistrelle) in the United Kingdom (UK).Location We modelled habitat and climatic associations of P. nathusii in the UK and applied this model to the species' historical range in continental Europe.Methods A binomial logistic regression model was constructed relating the occurrence of P. nathusii to climate and habitat characteristics using historical species occurrence records (1940-2006) and CORINE land cover data. This model was applied to historical and projected climate data to examine changes in suitable range (1940-2080) of this species. We tested the predictive ability of the model with known records in the UK after 2006 and applied the model to the species' known range in Europe.Results The distribution of P. nathusii was related positively to the area of water bodies, woodland and small areas of urbanization, and negatively related to the area of peat/heathland. Species records were associated with higher minimum temperatures, low seasonal variation in temperature and intermediate rainfall. We found that suitable areas have existed in the UK since the 1940s and that these have expanded. The model had high predictive power when applied to new records after 2006, with a correct classification rate of 70%, estimated by receiver operating characteristic analysis. Based on climate projections, our model suggests a potential twofold increase in the area suitable for P. nathusii in the UK by 2050. The single most influential climate variable contributing to range increase was the projected increase in minimum temperature. When applied to Europe, the model predictions had best predictive capability of known records in western areas of the species' range, where P. nathusii is present during the winter.Main conclusions We show that a mobile, migratory species has adapted its range in response to recent climate change on a continental scale. We believe this may be the first study to demonstrate a case of range change linked to contemporary climate change in a mammal species in Europe.