Notes on Suffolk Carabidae (Coleoptera) including two species new to the county list

NOTES ON SUFFOLK CARABIDAE (COLEOPTERA) INCLUDING TWO SPECIES NEW TO THE COUNTY LIST H . MENDEL

The County list of Carabidae has recently been extensively overhauled and updated by Nash (1978,1979). It issurprising therefore that this family should require further comment, and a good indication of how much more work is needed in Suffolk, on even the most well known groups of Coleoptera.

The nomenclature follows Kloet and Hincks (1977), and species previously not recorded from the County are marked with an asterisk. Grid references in Square brackets are those I have assigned to records.

*Amara infima (Duftschmid) A Single specimen of this rare ground beetle was collected on 20th August 1978, at the roots of plants along a sandy ride between stands of conifers at Wangford Warren [TL 7682] by Mr. John Parry, of St. Michaels, Tenterden, Kent. A. infima is possibly widespread though overlooked in the Breck district, where it is likely to be confused, in the field, with the locally common A. tibialis (Paykull).

Harpaus (Ophonus) rupicola Sturm The records given for H. rupicola by Morley (1899) are 'Coddenham, 1896 (Fox. Nat. Journal, July, 1896)' and 'Southwold (Crutwell)'. Alongside these, in Morley's own annotated copy of the book held with his collection at Ipswich Museum, has been added 'Aldeburgh in 1912 (Dr. Nicholson).'

Most of what is left of Crutwell's collection of Coleoptera is now housed in the City Museum, Peterborough. The Southwold 'rupicola' referred to by Morley is extant and has been examined. It is not rupicola and, though unfortunately a female, is in my opinion, H. rufibarbis F., a locally common species in Suffolk (vide Nash, 1978, 1979).

Morley (1934) also records rupicola from a chalk pit at Freckenham. A specimen with data corresponding exactly with this note, labelled TO.v.34 Freck. Clk. pit' and placed in the Morley collection above the label puncticollis (Paykull) leads me to believe that the note was based on a misidentification. The specimen was not in fact puncticollis either, but has been reidentified by Dr. M. L. Luff as H. schaubergerianus Puel (vide Nash, 1979).

Although rupicola is one of the more easily recognisable species of the the two lao CUlt S'8' °Phonus• remaining records for Suffolk, Coddenham, 1896 and Aldeburgh, 1912, are best regarded with some degree of scepticism until more concrete evidence comes to light.

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Suffolk Natural History, Vol. 18, Part 2

Bradycellus sharpi Joy A d d e d to the County list by Nash (1978), this species was considered to be apterous until the discovery of a brachypterous specimen by Hammond (1969). My discovery of two full-winged examples in Suffolk is therefore of interest. The first, a female, was swept from track-edge Vegetation, Felshamhall W o o d (TL 9357) on the 12th September, 1977; the second, a male, was f o u n d with eight apterous specimens under the loose bark of a log by a pond in the same wood, on the 4th March, 1979. The determinations of both specimens have been confirmed by Dr. M. L. Luff. *Masoreus wetherhalli (Gyllenhal) A very local species of open, usually sandy, habitats, seldom found far away from the coast. O n the 7th July 1979, I took a Single example of Masoreus under a fallen fence post on the Icklingham Plains (TL 7673), Suffolk.

Dromius angustus Brülle D. angustus, recognised as a British species by Champion (1908), was first recorded from Suffolk by Elliott (1936) on the strength of three Morley records. T h e earliest refers to a male, beaten from alder in Cutler's Wood, Freston, in August 1904. Morley had provisionally identified the specimen, on which this record is based, as D. meridionalis Dejean, and then submitted it to E . A . Newbery who re-identified it as D. agilis (F.), and according to Morley's entomological diary for 1904, commented in litt. 22nd October 1904, that if it was not agilis then it was angustus, a species he had always held to be British. Morley decided that the specimen was after all angustus in 1936.

I have examined the specimen, labelled in Morley's hand '22 viii 04' and also rather confusingly (probably in 1936) 'D. angustus, Brul E . A . N . 22 x 1904 New to Brit.', and can confirm that it is agilis and not angustus. Two other specimens of 'angustus' in the Morley Collection correspond with the 1932-3 Fritton and Blythburgh Wood records referred to by Elliott (I.e.). One labelled '29 ix 32 Fritton sugar' is agilis, the other labelled '5 ix 33 Blyth Wd dead b e e c h ' is meridionalis (teste M. L. Luff).

T h e o n e other specimen in Morley's series of angustus labelled '25 v 49 beat oak Beiton H t h ' [TG 40] is the true angustus. I am in no doubt that this specimen is one referred to by Burton (1949) in these Transactions.

A specimen in the C. G . Doughty Collection at Ipswich Museum labelled ' B r a n d o n 19/5/36' and thought by Doughty to be meridionalis is the earliest record of angustus I can trace for Suffolk. The species appears to be widespread in the County, and Messrs. D. R. Nash ( D . R . N . ) and C. S. Barham ( C . S . B . ) have kindly provided the following records: 18.iv. 1960—several specimens, Tunstall [TM 15] C.S.B.; 17.i. 1971, 23.iv. 1972—Single specimens, Hollesley H e a t h Nature Reserve (TM 345 467) D . R . N . ; 10.x. 1971— Single specimen, Tunstall (TM 380 559) D . R . N . ; 25.viii. 1974—Single specimen, Gazeley [TL 76] C.S.B. T o these records I can add: 13.xi. 1977— C a v e n h a m Heath Nature Reserve (TL 7572) H . M .

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Acknowledgements I thank Mr. C. S. Barham, Mr. D . R. Nash and Mr. J. Parry for allowing me to include their unpublished records, Mr. T. Cross, Curator, City Museum and Art Gallery, Peterborough, for the loan of material from the Crutwell Collection, and Dr. M. L. Luff for confirming the identification of a number of specimens, as indicated in the text.

References Burton, J. (1949). Insects rediscovered at Fritton Warren. Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 7, 6.

C h a m p i o n , G . C. (1908). Dromius angustus Brülle, at Woking. Ent mon Mag. 44, 124.

Elliott, E . A . (1936). Critical notes on our beetles. Trans. Suffolk Nat Soc 3 121.

H a m m o n d , P. M. (1969). A note on wing-development etc. in British Bradycellus s.str. (Col., Carabidae). Ent. mon. Mag. 105, 155.

Kloet, G. S. & Hincks, W. D. (1977). A c h e c k list of British insects. 2 n d e d n .

Handbk. Ident. Br. Insects. 11 (3), 1.

Morley, C. (1899). The Coleoptera of Suffolk. Plymouth.

Morley, C. (1934). Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 2. Proceedings clxiv.

Nash, D. R. (1978). Notes on the Suffolk list of Coleoptera: 1—Carabidae Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 17,391.

Nash, D. R. (1979). Notes on the Suffolk list of Coleoptera: 1—Carabidae. A Supplement. Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 18, 88.

H. Mendel, B.Sc., A . M . A . , The M u s e u m , High Street, Ipswich.

Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 18 part 2.