SOME RECORDS OF LEPIDOPTERA IN SUFFOLK DÜRING
1975 b y BARON DE W O R M S
THE year 1975 will indeed be long remembered for one of the most remarkable summers of the present Century with its phenomenal temperatures, especially in August, which brought forth a spate of the lepidoptera of which Suffolk had its fair share. Unfortunately not so many collectors as usual have sent in records and the loss of Mr. William Storey early in the year has been a great blow in this field. However, Mr. Charles Pierce has reported a number of species in the neighbourhood of his home at Needham Market. He mentions that the ordinary run of butterflies has been if anything in the ascendant during the season and many species have been commoner than usual, but of the regulär migrants such as the Red Admiral and the Painted Lady, he has only seen one of each throughout the wonderful summer. Of the moths he draws attention to the comparative scarcity of the Varied Coronet (Hadena compta Schiff.) compared with its normal abundance, while its close relative the Marbled Coronet (Hadena conspersa Schiff.) was much more plentiful. In April several Mullein Moths (Cucullia verbasci Linn.) came to his light later, producing their larvae which devoured his mulleins tili this progeny was eventually consumed, when full-grown, by the local blackbirds. Some other noctuid moths are worthy of his mention. These include the White Colon (Heliophobus albicolon Hübn.) which he says turned up at his light-trap the day after the snow in the first week in June. The Bird's Wing (Dypterygia scabriuscula Linn.) was unusually scarce and apparently often almost disappears from the area where it is normally quite common. Mr. Pierce says that the Hawkmoths were in fair numbers and the regulär members of the Prominents (Notodontidae). The Tawny Shears (Hadena lepida Esp.) was present in its many forms and colours, mostly pale yellow bordering on off-white. But since he only ran his moth-trap 25 times in the year, not such prolific catches or numbers of species could be expected. The rest of this report mainly comprises my own experiences in East Suffolk which I revisited in the heat wave in early August and for the first time since 1970. I arrived at Southwold on August 4th after quite a productive three days in Norfolk staying near Edgefield with Mr. Tony Palmer. My mercury vapour light trap in his garden had already provided quite a spate of insects so that I was quite prepared for a similar harvest when Mr. George Baker kindly let me run my apparatus in his garden at Reydon as he did in 1970. As already mentioned the day