Notes and Observations 18 Part 3

NOTES AND

OBSERVATION

Great warty newt (Triturus

cristatus (Laurenti))

O n e killed o n January 23rd, 1980 on the road at Woodbridge. It was 15.8 cm long but much mutilated. Its brilliant black and yellow abdominal colouration suggests that it was a male.

R . H . J. H a r t l e y Reed dagger moth Simyra albovenosa Goeze (S. venosa B o r k h . ) caught in a Heath-type trap in a garden at Thrandeston on the night of October 26th. 1980. The moth is out in June, but an autumn b r o o d is sometimes obtained.

P. J. Wanstall

White-Ietter hairstreak butterfly F o u r Thecla w-album K n o c h on bramble flowers in my garden at Stansfield, near Sudbury, on July 25th, 1980, and again on the 26th. They probably bred o n a wych elm in my garden.

L . Harrison Matthews

Hornets iVespa crabo

L.)

O n 23rd September a large hörnet was buzzing around in my spinney at Stansfield. and on 6th November a large queen hörnet came out of some logs b r o u g h t into the house. evidently roused from hibernation bv the w a r m t h . l t was caught and preserved. It had a 2" wing span and was 1 Vi" head to t a i l — a real man-eater!

L. Harrison Matthews.

Luminescent wood In M a r c h , 1981, the husband of a colleague of mine who lives at Denham, near B u r y St. Edmunds, cut some logs of horse chestnut wood and stacked them in a fireplace. When he entered the darkened r o o m later that evening he was astonished to find them •glowing". I checked one of them in a Photographie d a r k r o o m and, after about 5 minutes. was able to see the outline of the log quite clearly in a blue-white light. The log was rotten and stained by a fungus, and smelt 'fungal', but there were no fruiting bodies present. The glow was undoubtedly caused by a fungus (it is a well known phenomenon).

Trans. Suffolk

Nat. Soc. 18 part 3.

262

Suffolk

Natural History,

p r o b a b l y t h e h o n e y - t u f t fungus, Armillaria e x p e r i e n c e for m e to see this.

Vol. 18, Part 3 mellea. It was a new and exciting

G. D. Heathcote Vicia hybrida L. at B r a n d o n in 1882 H i n d (1889) gives a n u m b e r of records of Vicia lutea L. f r o m E a s t Suffolk sites ( m a i n l y n e a r t h e coast), t o g e t h e r with a solitary record f r o m W e s t Suffolk w h e r e t h e plant was f o u n d " A m o n g L u c e r n e at B r a n d o n " by W . J. Cross.

T h e h e r b a r i u m sheet of the B r a n d o n plant, which is in H i n d ' s h e r b a r i u m at Ipswich M u s e u m , gives t h e additional i n f o r m a t i o n that the specimen was collected f r o m a sandy field on t h e 30th May 1882. H o w e v e r , t h e specimen is n o t V. lutea, b u t a similar yellow-flowered S o u t h e r n E u r o p e a n species, V. hybrida L . V. hybrida has a hairy Standard, emarginate leaflets, solitary f l o w e r s at e a c h n o d e a n d u n e q u a l calyx-teeth; these characters separate it w i t h certainty f r o m b o t h V. lutea and a n o t h e r similar yellow-flowered species, V. pannonica C r a n t z . It seems reasonable to d e d u c e that V. hybrida was i n t r o d u c e d to B r a n d o n in i m p o r t e d L u c e r n e seed.

Reference H i n d , W . M . (1889). Flora of Suffolk.

M. A . Hyde.

Trans. Suffolk

Nat. Soc. 18 part 3.

London.