Collecting in Suffolk in July, 1956

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HOG HIGHLAND,

IPSWICH

on the opposite side of the estuary in a trench near the L.N.E.Rly. Halifax Box (where much of the Reading Clay contained abundant and large nodules of " race "). At no time has the Thanet Bed been exposed in any of the excavations for the construction work for the several stages of building ClifF Quay, but the Bull Head Bed was formerly exposed on the foreshore between tide marks before the quay was made. Thanet Sands of a bright green colour were exposed during the building of the British Petroleum Company's Tank Farm about one quarter of a mile to the north. It has also been dredged from about twenty-five feet in the river bed a few miles downstream. Recent dredging alongside the ClifF Quay extension has, for the most part, been in the chalk. Above the chalk is a rubble consisting of sand, clay and chalk with angular flints, with occasionally flints worked by Pre-historic man, one having been collected while the dredger was working. This deposit very closely resembles the more chalky portions of the Upper Boulder Clay, (deposited during the last but one Glaciation) and sometimes contains above eighty per Cent of chalk. It is evidently from this rubble that the large boulders of Sarsen were brought up during the work which in places prevented the steel piles from being driven to their pre-determined depth. Between this Stratum and the mud and ooze there is a peaty deposit the upper part being interlaminated with sand. One of the dredger crew recovered a femur of the extinct giant ox Bos primigenius from this level which is presumably of post Glacial age.

COLLECTING IN SUFFOLK, JULY, 1956 For the third year in succession I have visited Suffolk towards the end of July. In 1956 I motored direct to Southwold on July 23rd where I joined Mr. E. J. Hare. Conditions were very promising with a warm south-west wind and a dark sky. As in the previous year, we decided to try the marshes near Walberswick which we reached by 9.30 p.m., and set up our mercury-vapour light. Insects soon started Coming freely. One of the first to arrive was a female of the Oak Eggar (Lasiocampa quercus Linn.), while a little later an even larger female of the Läppet (Gastropacha quercifolia Linn.). We were kept busy up tili 12.30 a.m., with a steady stream of visitors comprising up to 43 species of the macrolepidoptera. Of these among the marsh-loving insects noted were the Striped Wainscot (Leucania pudorina Schiff.), the Shore


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Collecting in Suffolk in July, 1956 by Suffolk Naturalists' Society - Issuu