Entomological Notes

ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTES by

A . E . ASTON, B . A . ,

F.L.S.

SCOTS BEETLE N E W TO SUFFOLK.

At Barton Mills on 2nd June, 1957, Mr. F. D. Buck beat out a single example of a small Melandryid that proved to be Abdera triguttata, Gyll., previously known only from the Aviemore, Nethy Bridge and Newtonmore area of Scotland. A report of the SufFolk capture can be found in the Entomologist's Monthly Magazine for 1957, vol. 93, page 280.

It ..is interesting to see some north Coleoptera colonising areas of Suffolk where the Forestry Commission plant conifers. As in the Lepidoptera, some of our recent additions may be cases of direct introduction.

O L D SUFFOLK RARITY RECURS. Another beetle with a mainly northern provenance is the scarce Staphylinid Staphylinus ophthalmicus, Scop., but there is an early Suffolk record by Stephens for it under the name of Ocypus cyaneus, Payk., and two important captures were made at Bury St. Edmunds by Norgate in 1894 and 1896. It cannot, therefore, be claimed that three fairly recent captures of this species in Suffolk are to be attributed solely to the activities of the Forestry Commission. A male S. ophthalmicus, Scop., was taken on 2nd July, 1948 by Mr. C. M. Jarvis and the Reverend C. E. Tottenham at Barton Mills, under a small log resting on turf at the fringe of a coppice. Further search that day revealed no more, but on 16th July Mr. Jarvis found another male there among dry twigs and leaves on a path a few yards from the edge of the wood (Ent. Mon. Mag. 85, p. 22) Again, in the third week of September, 1951, Mr. A. W. Gould took a single specimen of 5. ophthalmicus at the foot of a hedge on light sandy soil at Woodbridge (Ent. Mon. Mag. 87, p. 310). It will be interesting to see whether this remains a rare species with us.

BEECH B O L E AND STOAT S K I N BEETLES. In addition to the above brilliant capture of S. ophthalmicus, Mr. Gould took two other good things at Woodbridge in September, 1951. Endomychus coccineus, L., was found in hundreds on the trunk of a very large beech, the bole of which was completely ringed with clumps of a large gilled fungus. Many beetles were in cop. but singletons parading the trunk were a pretty spectacle in sunlight. Dermestes murinus, L., is not, of course, a rare beetle, but Mr. Gould captured it in the correct and pleasingly antique manner. Specimens were taken from the dried and wizened corpse of a stoat hung on a fence with a string round its neck. The animal was shaken vigorously over a sheet of newspaper : D. murinus and earwigs " plopped " out in equal numbers until more than thirty beetles had appeared (Ent. Mon. Mag. 87, p. 310). Even on a gamekeeper's " gibbet " nothing is wasted. If all our small animals

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vvere poisoned, it is unlikely that this bettle would become extinct, as it has a partiality for sacking and stored hides, but the same cannot be said of gamekeepers.

INHABITANTS OF CATTLE-TROUGHS. In July 1955, Mr. R. O. ßrinkhurst of the Zoology Department of King's College, London, conducted a survey of the fauna in cattle-troughs near Fiatford Mill, where the results of his work are lodged, but a summary may be read in the Entomologist's Monthly Magazine for June, 1956, volume 92, p. 244. The principal change in cattle-trough fauna during the months July to September, 1955, was a decrease b j t h in numbers and species of Coleoptera (beetles) compared with an increase in the Hemiptera (bugs). The insect species were in most cases known to be strong fliers and many were considered typical of organically polluted or stagnant waters. None, however, would equal the perversity of the American insect that breeds in pools of crude petroleum or of the borer that penetrates lead cableinsulation to earn itself the title of the short-circuit beetle. In the cattle-troughs at Fiatford the most frequent of all animals were the larvae of Chironomid gnats, which in some species are the familiar red " bloodworms " of water-butts. It is comforting to remember, in view of their prevalence, that they are known in the adult stage as " Non Biting Midges ".

Six E M P I D S N E W TO SUFFOLK. This year sees the publication of Mr. Collin's great work on the Empididae, a sequel to the work of Verrall, and consequently it is no bad occasion to bring forward in these Transactions six Empids new to Suffolk, taken as long ago as Ist to 14th July, 1946, by Mr. E. Garrett-Jones at Fiatford Mill.

T h e additions to Our list at Trans, supra Vol. VII, part III, 1951, page 112, are all of the genus Hilara, as follows : H. aeronetha, Mik., H. anglodanica, Lund., H. cornicula, Loew., H. apta, Collin, H. morata, Collin and H. manicata, Meigen.

These fruitful results were obtained owing to the systematic method of work, which involved repeated visits to five restricted habitats at varied times of day. A period of close Observation preceded the careful and selective netting of specimens, in which males or pairs with prey were preferred. Mr. Garrett-Jones also considered IL thoracica, Mcq., and II. lurida, Fln., as possible Suffolk novelties but botli had been observed at Orford many years previously by King. A füll account with geographical details of these Fiatford captures is available in the Entomologist's Monthly Magazine Volume 86, pages 260-4. Our County total of 148 Empids out of the British 330 is clearly an under-estimate and further careful Observation could improve it.

CHOCOLATE BORDERED W H I T E M O T H .

In March, 1956, Mr. J. H. Styles of the Forest Research Station, Alice Holt Lodge, Wrecclesham, Surrey, collected pupae of Bupalus piniarius, L., the Bordered White Moth, in Tunstall Forest. One specimen