NOTES ON THE SUFFOLK LIST OF COLEOPTERA: 13 SEVENTEEN SPECIES NEW TO THE SUFFOLK LIST

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NOTES ON THE SUFFOLK LIST OF COLEOPTERA

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NOTES ON THE SUFFOLK LIST OF COLEOPTERA: 13 SEVENTEEN SPECIES NEW TO THE SUFFOLK LIST, SIX DELETIONS AND RECENT SIGNIFICANT RECORDS DAVID R. NASH The first part of this paper brings forward seventeen species of beetle (asterisked) which should be considered “New to Suffolk” for any Index to these Transactions as well as noting six which should be deleted (D). It concludes with details of some recent noteworthy records. All records are my own except where indicated. As in previous papers in this series, records are allocated to vice-county (VC25, East; VC26, West) and National Grid references are provided, with those assigned by me to old records being placed in square brackets. The national status for scarce and threatened species is given, following Hyman (1994) in his National Review; an explanation of these categories is provided in a previous paper in this series (Nash, 2003). The national status assigned in early versions of English Nature’s Recorder database is given for most other species. Unless specifically mentioned, there are no Suffolk specimens of any of the beetles discussed in the Claude Morley/ Chester Doughty collection at Ipswich Museum (in the following account simply referred to as the Morley Collection). CARABIDAE All references to “Luff” or Atlas in these species’ accounts refer to Luff’s Atlas (1998). *Omophron limbatum (Fabricius) RDB1 On 19 August 2003, Mark Telfer (Carabid Recording Scheme Organiser), Dave Boyce and John Walters visited the disused area of the aggregates extraction site near Cavenham where I had found Bracteon argenteolum (Ahrens) and Bembidion pallidipenne (Illiger) in 2002 (Nash, 2003). Mark sent me very detailed observations concerning the site and its beetles and these are incorporated in the following account; quotes given are from Mark’s ms. The group concentrated their attention on the edges of the silt-lagoon where I had found B. pallidipenne. This lagoon has been formed on the edges of the working quarry as a result of industrial extraction of aggregates. Washings heavily laden with silt, fall from a pipe into the silt lagoon where the silt is deposited. The level of the water in the lagoon is therefore affected by how much washing is being undertaken and by evaporation. On both weekends when I had visited, no washing would have been undertaken for at least 24–48 hours and the weather had been very hot; the visible water level began about 8 m from the boundary of the lagoon giving very much the impression of a lake drying up. In a photo taken by the group during their midweek visit when washing was being undertaken, water can be seen gushing out of the pipe with force and the visible water level has risen tremendously from my weekend visits, giving the impression of a turbulent river in flood. The most numerous of the noteworthy species which they found, was the extremely distinctive, and almost orbicular species Omophron limbatum (Fabricius). Although it is reputed in the old literature to have occurred

Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 43 (2007)


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