Notes and Observations 16 Part 1

NOTES A N D

OBSERVATIONS

BASKING SHARK ( S e l a c h e maximd).

On Ist December, 1971, a 20 feet basking shark was landed at Lowestoft after it had become entangled in the nets of a sprat boat just off the harbour mouth.

This event is of more than usual interest as the only other fully authenticated occurrence in the county was one which I recorded in our "Transactions" as having come ashore, injured in rough seas, on the north beach at Lowestoft on 21st September, 1937.

When the "List of Suffolk Fishes" was published by our Society in 1933 there were no reliable reports of this species of shark having occurred off our coast.

The Pagets in their "Natural History of Yarmouth", 1834, stated that "Several of this species have been taken at different times".

A. H. Patterson, who, in all his long experience of local fishes had never met with it, was, however, inclined to doubt the Pagets' Statement, and thought it possible that they might have confused it with the porbeagle shark, which was often landed at Lowestoft and Yarmouth during the herring fishing seasons, and of which they mention only two occurrences.

F . C . COOK, L o w e s t o f t .

SNAILS IN POST-GLACIAL PEAT. Düring the winter of 1971/72 the Blyth R.D.C. had constructed a new sewage works in the valley at Benhall Green, T M 381603. This entailed inter alia the excavation into the valley floor of a large hole rather more than 20 feet deep. The soil was mainly peat with abundant plant remains, amongst which birch (Betula) was easily recognisable.

At two levels were narrow strata containing the bleached remains of snail shells. The highest, of sandy peat, at an average depth of 13 feet below the surface the lower, of peaty clay, at about 20 feet.

I did not visit the site until after this hole had been excavated and most of the soil removed but there still remained by the side of the hole a large heap of excavated spoil in which lumps of sandy peat with shells from the upper, and peaty clay with shells from the lower Stratum could easily be recognised and recovered. T h e sides of the pit had been prepared for concreting and it was not possible to take samples in situ. Shells were abundant in the upper peaty Stratum, less so in the lower muddy one in which too the number of species was fewer. T h e following species were found:—

In peaty clay at 20 feet Bithynia tentaculata Valvata cristata V. piscinalis V. macrostoma Succinea sp.

Physa fontinaüs

50

Suffolk Natural

History,

Vol. 16, Part 1

In sandy peat at 13 feet Bithynia tentaculata B. leachi Valvata cristata V. piscinalis V. macrostoma Succinea sp.

Acroloxus lacustns Lymnaea peregra Planorbis complanata P. albus P. carinatus *Pisidium nitidum

ÂťIdentified by D r . M . A. P. Kerney.

Dr. R. Cameron was good enough to do p H measuremcnts at both strata and f o u n d the lower level to have a p H of 7 - 0 (neutral) and the higher 6 - 0 (very slightly acid). T h e peat therefore must be fen peat and t h e area must have been reasonably calcareous at the time.

CRANBROOK, G t . G l e m h a m .

GLOW-WORMS: INFORMATION NEEDED.

D r . G . D . H e a t h c o t e is

preparing a short paper on glow-worms for publication in this Journal. H e finds that information on the present distribution of this insect in Suffolk is very sparse, so if any members have records for the county either for this year or for the recent past, it would be most helpful if they would let the Editor have details which he will pass on to Dr. Heathcote.

FRITILLARIA

MELEAGR1S—A

WEST SUFFOLK

COLONY.

A recent visit to the fritillary meadows at F r a m s d e n and Mickfield, p r o m p t s me to add a little to the history of two former West Suffolk colonies of Fritillaria meleagris.

T h e y were both mentioned, among others, in a paper published in this Journal some six years ago by Miss J. C. N . Willis et al. Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 13, 214.

T h e sites in question were in the adjoining parishes of W h e p stead and Hawstead. I did not know the Hawstead colony b u t I have it on the authority of M r . Oliver Powell, of Hawstead Place, that t h e meadow lay just across the Valley f r o m his farm and that it survived until a few years ago when, following a change of ownership, it was ploughed up.

T h e Whepstead colony, in what is known as "Rectory M e a d o w " , has long been extinct though it still survived into the 1930s. At that time one of our domestics, who lived at Whepstead, brought us a few bulbs. T h e s e were duly planted in a part of the garden here that had once been old meadow-land.

Cherished by us ever since, the colony has flourished and increased and this year produced nearly 200 blooms. Each spring I net t h e whole area against moorhens and wood pigeons which

NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

51

otherwise pick off all thc flowers. In July I remove the netting, collect the seed-heads, and mow the grass.

Usually I scatter the seed round the site, but last year's crop went to the Nature Conservancy at Monks Wood for germination experiments.

It is of interest to me that "our" fritillaries appear to be slightly different from those farther east. They are a darker colour and the flowers seem shorter and more blunt. The buds too lack the bellshaped tips to the perianth which seem characteristic of all the flowers at Framsden and Mickfield that I have examined. Was the West Suffolk fritillary of a different type from those found elsewhere in the county?

In any case, as those in the garden here, whose ancestry is beyond doubt, are probably the last of the western strain, their existence and history is hereby put on record.

W. H. P A Y N , Härtest, Bury St. Edmunds.

Tvvo F U N G I NEW TO SUFFOLK. Düring a recent visit to the Suffolk Breckland, I collected two species of fungi which prove to be new to the County:— 1.

Paxinn leucomelas (Pers.) O. Kuntze. I collected this from a larch plantation near Brandon, on 4th April, 1972, and my identification has been confirmed by Dr. R. W. G. Dennis of the Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He says: "very fine specimens, exceptionally well developed".

2.

Clitocybe vermiciilaris Fr. From the same plantation, and confirmed by Dr. D. A. Reid, of the same Herbarium.

Dr. Reid teils me there are no previous specimens in the Kew Herbarium.

S. C.

PORTER,

Moseley, Birmingham.