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Suffolk Natural History,
Vol. 34
The Golden Hoverfly, Callicera spinolae Rondani-possible Suffolk sighting in 1997 Following Dr. Tony Irwin's mention of Mr. Ivan Perry's notes on the status of Callicera spinolae in Britain, I wrote to Mr. Perry, who kindly drew my attention to an English Nature publication which reports his recent recovery work on this species, some of it in Suffolk. It is very exciting to read that Mr.Perry is fairly certain that he saw a C. spinolae at TTiornham Magna on 20 September 1997 at 1.20 pm but it was high up and made only a brief visit to ivy-blossom on a dead tree. This was the only specimen observed in 1997 but English Nature's species recovery programme is scheduled to continue in the autumn of 1998. The 1997 survey covered various sites in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk; it included searches for larvae in rot-holes and for imagines at ivy-blossom. It would be most encouraging if Claude Morley's supposition were proved to be correct, namely that this splendid hoverer could survive in Suffolk. Reference Rotheray, G. E. (1997). Callicera spinolae Species Recovery Interim Report, including recommendations forfuture work. English Nature, Peterborough. Alasdair Aston Lesser Golden Hoverfly, Callicera aurata Rossi 1790 (= Aenea Fabricius 1777) (Diptera: Syrphidae) new to Suffolk My interest in the Syrphid genus Callicera was recently revived by the arrival of two specimens of C. aurata at my cottage mv lamp in Seiborne, Hampshire, on 25 August 1995 and on 10 July 1996. Both specimens were named for me by Dr. Nigel Wyatt of the Natural History Museum. These two occurrences sent me back to the literature, where I was reminded that in 1942 Claude Morley at first thought his Callicera spinolae might be C. aurata, a species he noted as occurring singly in various counties but only regularly in the New Forest: he had not seen it in Suffolk. I was, therefore, delighted the other day to come across a note by Ivan Perry in the Dipterist's Digest to the effect that he had found several larvae of C. aurata on 12 March 1995 in a birch rot-hole at Tuddenham Heath, Suffolk, part of the Cavenham Heath National Nature Reserve. The larvae were identified by Dr. Graham E. Rotheray of the National Museums of Scotland. Mr. Perry's discovery is important for several reasons, one being the association with birch, which may help to explain the fly's occurrence away from beech, and another is the national extension of the ränge of C. aurata, which had not before been recorded from East Anglia. References Morley, C. (1942) Golden Hoverer-Fly new to Britain. Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc., 5: 14. Perry, 1.(1997). Callicera aurata in Suffolk found breeding in birch. Dipterist's Digest, 3: 53. Alasdair Aston
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