Further Important Additions to the Suffolk List of Coleoptera.

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FURTHER IMPORTANT ADDITIONS TO THE SUFFOLK LIST OF COLEOPTERA DAVID R . NASH T H I S paper brings forward a further five species of beetle which appear to be new to the Suffolk List of Coleoptera. With the exception of the Alphitobius, all of them must almost certainly be considered to be extremely rare in the county or eise highly localised. Four-figure National Grid references are provided for the localities cited.

Dasytidae Haplocnemus nigricornis (Fabricius) A single example of this rather rare insect was swept from mixed herbage under mature Scots Pine Pinns sylvestris L. close to Long Covert, near Shrubland Park, Barham (TM 1253) on 30th May, 1972. This species, like its close ally IL pini Redten bacher, develops in rotten wood and both insects are most frequently taken under bark. Both are occasionally taken when at rest on flowers or foliage. Apart from small, purely comparative differences, the two species are usually fairly easily separated on colouration, pini having the upper surface bronze or bronzeblack, whilst nigricornis is usually greenish-bronze or bluish. Using this character, my specimen at first sight appeared referable to pini, although there was a slight greenish tinge to the elytra. Not having any material for comparison, I submitted the insect to Mr. A. A. Allen who informed me (in litt.) that he too at first considered it, on the basis of colouration, to be pini. Upon comparing it with specimens in his collection, however, he found that it was, nevertheless, nigricornis. As a result of critical examination of this somewhat unusually coloured specimen, Mr. Allen discovered a difference in the pubescence of the two species which appears to have previously been overlooked. A note describing this new Separation character is shortly to be published by Mr. Allen. Melandryidae Orchesia undulata Kraatz One specimen of this widely distributed but apparently rare beetle (certainly in Suffolk) was discovered under the bark of a fallen, lightening-struck oak in Bentley Long Wood near Ipswich (TM 1039) on 16th August, 1974. The insect has occurred to me quite frequently in those areas of Wiltshire and Hampshire, including the New Forest, in which I have collected, although Fowler (1891) considered it rare and records that he had only ever seen one alive—that was in the New Forest and he failed


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Further Important Additions to the Suffolk List of Coleoptera. by Suffolk Naturalists' Society - Issuu