NOTES ON THE SUFFOLK LIST OF COLEOPTERA
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BRUCHIDAE *Bruchidius varius (Olivier) Bruchidius varius was first found in this country in West Sussex in 1994 (Hodge, 1997) and has been slowly spreading in grassy places in the south of the country since that time. It was found in South Essex in 1999 (Cox, 2001) and, realising that it could well turn up in Suffolk at any time, I had been keeping a close watch for it whilst sweeping its foodplants which are species of Trifolium. On July 29 2004 I swept two females from White Clover (Trifolium repens L.) on the edge of Bentley Long Wood, VC25 (TM1038). Later in the year, on 16 August, B. varius was swept by Peter Hammond near the sea wall in Trimley Marshes VC25 (TM2535). CERAMBYCIDAE *Glaphyrus (formerly Molorchus) umbellatarum (Schreiber) Na The discovery of a native longhorn beetle new to Suffolk after almost two centuries of recording of the county’s coleoptera is a highly noteworthy event given the long established popularity of the group with collectors because of their spectacular appearance and the relative ease with which most species in this country can be identified. On 6 June 2004, a specimen of G. umbellatarum (a very local and much declined species in this country) was beaten from a recently dead branch of Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa L.) on the edge of Fakenham Wood VC26 (TL9276) by Martin Rejzek, an acknowledged authority on the Palaearctic cerambycids who has recently moved to this country to take up a post at the University of East Anglia. His extensive first-hand knowledge of the biology of cerambycids (including the recognition of all our species from their larvae and their characteristic larval borings) means that there will certainly be further significant discoveries and observations as he works our longhorn fauna. We are, indeed, fortunate that he has chosen this region as his base. Morley never found this beetle anywhere. SCOLYTIDAE *Xyleborus dispar (Fabricius) Nb One example of this sexually dimorphic bark beetle was collected by Richard Wilson (det. J. Ashby) in a pitfall trap run on the open heath at Minsmere R.S.P.B. Reserve, VC25 (TM4666) between 7 May 1998–22 May 1997. According to the well-known coleopterist and professional economic entomologist A. M. Massey (1946), X. dispar is a widely but locally distributed pest of apple and plum in the U.K. and is more common in the south of England. Adults and their larvae may be found in their tunnels in the heartwood at all times of the year but adults seem to be most common from January to June with males being rarer and chiefly occurring in winter. The beetle also breeds in oak, beech, holly etc. *Ernobius pini (Sturm) Naturalised In his study of the species of the genus described early last century by David Sharp, Johnson (1965) established that Sharp’s oblitus was conspecific with pini of Sturm and published personally confirmed records of it from six
Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 41 (2005)