Other Micros New to Suffolk

OTHER MICROS NEW TO by

SUFFOLK

ALASDAIR ASTON

Platyedra malvella, HĂźbn.

Suffolk's 1543rd. lepidopteron.

In the Final Catalogue of the lepidoptera of Suffolk, 1937, this species is listed as unknown in Suffolk in the hope that it would one day arrive. Mr. Wakely has kindly identified two Stowmarket specimens for me. The first came to light on June 21st, 1951 (a fine coming-of-age present) at Stowmarket, and the second came also to light during August, 1956. Mr. Morley thought it a coastal species but it has occurred in my garden at Dulwich. In Heslop's list it is termed, " The Hollyhock Groundling " ; Meyrick mentions its foods as the mallows Althea rosea and A. officinalis, stating it to be common up to York. Insert as species No. 1096a on the Moth Memoir.

Coleophora deauratella, Zell. In 1937, Mr. Morley considered this a merely local kind probably present with us, the food, flowerheads of Trifolium (Meyrick), causing no difficulty. Meyrick gives it as local up to Westmorland and Heslop dubs it " The Gilded Case " which aptly describes it. A specimen came to ordinary electric light with twenty-four other species at my bedroom window on July 31st, 1951. It is species No. 1544 (1284a) on the Suffolk list.

Coleophora frischella, Linnaeus. In Suffolk's Final Catalogue of Lepidoptera, frischella is mentioned as likely to be noted when individual attention is paid to our species. It was noticed in 1937, to approach as closely as Cambs., and Meyrick notes it from Hants., Dorset, Herts., York and Durham—local. It feeds on seeds of Melilotus officinalis, which caused its synonym " melilotella, Scott." Heslop calls it Frisch's Case. It came to light at Stowmarket bedroom-light together with sixty other kinds on July 28th, 1951. It is Suffolk's 1445th species (1284b) of Lepidoptera.

Phalonia dubitana, Hb. Suffolk's 1546th lepidopteron. Just before the war, on 22nd July, 1939, Messrs. Claude Morley and P. J. Burton were collecting on a sandy field at Brandon with light when they took the moth Phalonia dubitana. This is recorded at S.N.S. Vol. IV, p. 136, somewhat modestly, because the moth was at the time NEW to Suffolk. I might have overlooked this were it not for the fact that one specimen of P. dubitana came to light in my bedroom at Stowmarket on July 30th, 1951, with seventy-three other species of moth. When I turned up the Transactions I found the above note but no mention of its being a Suffolk novelty. Meyrick states that it feeds on seedheads of Senecio, Crepis, Solidago, and that it is local up to the Clyde.

291 Morley in 1937, considered it overlooked ! Heslop's English name sounds a little disparaging:—" The Doubtful Dwarf Conch ". Insert it as species 827a on the Suffolk list.

Alispa angustella, Hb. It should be mentioned that two specimens of this Phycitid moth were taken NEW to Suffolk by Mr. Chipperfield at Stowmarket in 1949. I captured one at light at Stowmarket on July 20th, 1951, with fifty-one other species of moth. Beirne Covers the early stages and its relationship with spindle, Euonymus europaeus. Meyrick considers it local " Hants and Devon to Hereford". Mr. Morley noted angustella as an absentee in 1937 and considered it confined to South-West England. I think it is, properly, our 1534th lepidopteron, being mentioned as an exhibit in S.N.S. Vol. VII p. LXIX. It is species 665a on the Suffolk List. I am indebted to Mr. Wakely of Herne Hill for all the above identifications, except, of course, the last one.

OTHER MICROS NEW TO SUFFOLK

MIDWINTER INSECTS

by ALASDAIR ASTON

No naturalist need ever be idle, it seems, not even in icy Aberdeen shortly before Hogmanay ! Dancing on the house window on December 26th, 1957, was a winter gnat of the Genus Trichocera, with a characteristic spot on its wings. It turns out to be Trichocera regelationis, L., which swarms on mild afternoons in the winter months both in Aberdeenshire and Suffolk (see S.N.S. Vol. VI p. 3). The larvae of the genus feed on a variety of decaying organic materials.

Also evident on Boxing Day was the beetle Dromius quadrinotatus, Panzer, crawling away from a pile of pine logs being used for the fire. Fowler says that it is found under bark, generally distributed and common in England. In Scotland it is widely distributed as far north as Moray, but not common ; not recorded from Ireland, but probably occurs there. I have the much commoner Dromius quadrimaculatus, L., from Stowmarket and from Chislehurst, August, 1945. I took a specimen of the associated Risophilus atricapillus, L., in Northfield Wood, Onehouse in August, 1945.

On the afternoon before Christmas we saw a bluebottle in the garden at Aberdeen, probably Calliphora erythrocephala, Meig., and indoors on January 5th, we found a hibernating Aglais urticae.

It was inside an empty but closed shoe-box, inside a closed wardrobe, in a room facing north the window of which is not often open.

How did the butterfly get there ? Here in Dulwich Musca domestica stirred out of hibernation on January 1 Ith.