Observations 4 Part 4

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OBSERVATIONS. O n e walked apart and silent, Asclepius t h e wise child, with his b o s o m füll of h e r b s and r o u n d his wrist a spotted snake ; he came with downcast eyes to Cheiron, and whispered how he had watched the snake cast its old skin and grow y o u n g again b e f c r e his eyes, and how he h a d gone down into a village and c u r e d a dying m a n with a h e r b which he had seen a sick goat eat. A n d C h e i r o n smiled, and said ' T o each Athene and Apollo give some gift a n d each is w o r t h y in his place ; b u t to this child they have given an h o n o u r b e y o n d all honours, to eure w h i l e others kill.'

—Kingsley's Argonauts.

BRECK GEOLOGY.—" One of the most accomplished practical Geologists in this County informs me that there is no doubt that this tract of country was actually a ränge of coast sands at a recent point of the Post-glacial period, when the great valley of the Fens was still submerged. However, it is now perfectly isolated, the nearest portion of the sea being the Wash, more than twenty miles distant, while the eastern coast with its fringe of sandhills is more than forty miles away; the intermediate country being in both cases of a totally different character, and utterly unsuited for the existence of the species in question.

Although the Post-glacial epoch is comparatively a very recent one, the actual length of time which has since passed is so great that I presume few Geologists would venture to compute it even in thousands of years. And, although there has evidently been considerable oscillation of the land during the subsequent period, the deposits of gravel, &c., in different parts of the Fen Valley indicate that fresh-water agencies were at work, and that the sea had not the same action on the old coast line, since the later Post-glacial period. This view is confirmed by the absence of marine shells in these deposits, while the immense lapse of time is further shown by the presence of an abundance of a freshwater shell (Cyrena flumenalis, [Corbicula fluminalis, Müller: cf. Trans, ii, 243]) embedded in them, although the species has now totally disappeared from the seas of northern Europe, and is not known to occur nearer than the mouth of the Nile. The only reasonable conclusion is that [its present peculiar Fauna has] occupied this suitable ground from the time of the close of the Post-glacial period at least, previous to the upheaval of

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the present Fen Valley, and that these species have remained unchanged in form and even colour through the many conditions of life experienced and, in particular, that of the change from saline influences of a neighbouring sea to those of a warm inland district."—C. G. Barrett in EMM. vii, 197.

T H E DYERS-WEED, Genista tinctoria, AND ITS INSECT FAUNA.— I have recently seen several clumps of Dyers-weed at Wissett, but could find no Insects on them. E. R . L O N G , 1 July.—G. tinctoria is a very local plant in Suffolk and recorded by Hind from only a score of places, nor is it always profuse where it does grow (as at Westleton: cf. SNS. Mem. 1937, p. 203). To these I was able to add Scalesbrook Lane on the north edge of Holton near Haiesworth where it was in small patches, hardly high enough to sweep, last May. Later I found it in such great profusion in the north-west corner of Holton Park as to cover some three hundred Square yards, whence our Hon. Secretary was able to sweep on 8 June, though it was still short, a single male of Leucoptera Wailesella, Stn., a Tineid moth of which only larval mines have been previously noted in our County.— P. J. BURTON, Lowestoft. [Never have we witnessed a süperber sight under the sun than this huge golden bed presented on 10 July, when it was subjected to thorough sweeping for the plant's peculiar Insects, e.g. Orthotylus adenicarpi, Perr., Livia ulicis, Ct., Apion Kiesenwetteri, Desb., Luperus nigrifasciatus, Göz., &c. But Heterocordylus genista. Scop., was the sole characteristic species and abounded. The result was most diasppointing and showed merely larvse of Green Hairstreaks Thecla rubi, of some unnamed Geometer, of a Tortricid and (though Cameron knew none on any Genista) of a Sawfly. The sole Hymenopteron was Isosoma elongatum, Wik. ; the Diptera were Sepsis nigripes, Mg., Meromyza variegata, Mg., Chlorops speciosa, Mg. and Agromyza flaveola, Fln. Hemiptera : Plagiognathus chrysanthemi, Wf. and arbustorum, Fab., Delphax Fairmairii, Perr., Trioza galii Fst., Megouravicice, Bck. (no Aphis genistae, Scop.), with profuse AZolothripsfasciatus, L. Beetles : Apion scutellare, NEW to Suffolk, and various common trefoil apricans, assimile and humile, with abundant Sitones tibialis, Hbst.—Hon. See.] AN INTERESTING VETCHLING.—Yesterday near Haiesworth I saw a few roots of the Grass Pea, a plant I have never met with before, though the late Mr. Oswald A. Reade of this town told me once that he had found it at Normanston here and had shewed it with all due pride to a party of Norwich botanists : a week later all had disappeared, and none have ever been found here since that time ! It is usually considered rather rare ; and I should much like to know where it has been previously discovered in Suffolk. Perhaps you would kindly inform me.—E. R. LONG ; 130 Bevan-street, Lowestoft, 23 June.

[Hind thought

OBSERVATIONS. Lathyrus in bushy of which our NE. none on during '

243

Nissolia, Linn., a not infrequent annual on banks and places ; but he records it from merely a dozen localities, only Bungay, Mendham Hill and Darsham approximate corner; five are in the SE. angle of the County, and boulder-clay. But our latest knowledge is not available the duration.'—Ed.]

FOUR INTERESTING PLANTS.—In Thelnetham Fen on 3 August last were found two plants that may interest Members, named

by Mr. Mayfield Drosera anglica, Huds. and Campanula rapunculoides, L. The Sundew is much the rarest of our three indigenous kinds in the New Forest, and was here growing in such profusion as to practically cover a wide area of quaking bog ; it seems to be known in Suffolk from only the Breck, Redgrave Fen, and here whence it is recorded by Rector J. S. Sawbridge before 1889. The Bell-flower, on the contrary, was so scarce that but one root appeared on the arable edge of the Fen ; it is the rarest British species and hardly known with us outside Hind's area one : Miss Nancy Cracknell recently saw it in a Barton Mills chalk-pit.—P. J. BURTON. [The commonest of our Campanulas (C. Trachelium, L.) was somewhat frequent both in- and out-side Swingens and Priestly Woods in Barking five days later ; Miss Watson saw it at Claydon in July 1916.—Ed.] I found Orobanche hederce, Duby, in Gisleham rectory garden on 1 September; and a beautiful form of Stachys palustris, L., in which the pure white flowers have the bottom lip brilliant blue, was growing in Hoxne marsh last August.—JACK GODDARD. THORN-ÄPPLE (Trans, ii, 208 ; iii, 75).—Datura stramo ninm Linn., is not a naturalised Suffolk plant, and I had never met with it tili early last September. Then its large vine-like leaves, barely expanded flowers and spiky fruit, caught my eye on a Single stem hardly over a foot in height, in the rather narrow hedge-bank close beside a tarred road, as I was cycling along one evening in the south-east angle of Cookley parish. No other plants appeared in its vicinity.—P. J. BURTON. [A specimen was found in Monks Soham rectory garden in August 1917, and its identity confirmed by Prof. Carr of Nottingham Museum ; and an apparently wild one came up in the school garden there in 1922.—Ed.] SPURGE LAUREL AND BUTCHERS BROOM.—Among the bare plants of winter, these two stand forth with conspicuous and evergrateful verdancy. Of the former a long list of Suffolk localities figures in all five (very artificial) districts given by Hind a halfcentury ago ; but now, I much fear, fully a moiety of these would be found depleted. It no longer grows in Monks Soham, where Miss Watson saw it about 1900; during 1917 we planted many roots on a chalky spot in my garden there, brought from Lavenham

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where it abounded : all died. Up to 1927 I noticed it commonly by the main road at Stonham Aspal: all are now disappeared, as far as I can see, as also are those Daphne laureola, L., first introduced to me by Dr. J. E. Taylor in Blakenham Parva chalkpits so long ago as 1893. Last February I was delighted to detect a hefty clump of four plants flourishing in a neglected— blessings upon the farmer's head !—hedge at Peppers Ford in Framlingham.

I know the much rarer Ruscus aculeatus, L., from none of Hind's fourteen villages but Dunwich, where it was growing in a cliff-wood during 1924. But Dr. Vinter and I discovered it profuse at Staverton Thicks in 1917-20 ; and a large clump was observed among a coppice of Stratford St. Andrew in 1935. Last February there was a whole hedgebottom füll of it at Champneys in Diss, a few hundred yards over our northern border. Both species grown in the Pheasantcoverts of Redgrave Park.

SOME OLD SUFFOLK O A K - T R E E S . — T h e Society will have to compile a purely historical article upon this subject, comprising St. Edmunds Hoxne oak and the Bramfield oak and Kirby's Barham oak et hoc, at some future period.

Meanwhile a few careful measurements during 1941 give the following girths of ancient specimens of Quercus robur, L., at five feet above ground ; all appear to be venerable remnants of those glorious woodlands, whose backbone was this majestic tree, that so broadly embosomed our County through mediseval times and up to, at least, the ship-building days of the later Stuarts in the seventeenth Century.

The largest I have hitherto noted, in Heveningham marshes, is of 21 feet (i.e. two feet less than the fictitious ' Sherlock Holmes ' Huristone oak, which " was there at the Norman Conquest in all probability."—Strand Mag. v, 1898, p. 486); two in pastures close to Barking church 18 feet 4 inches and 15.10; at Valley farm-house in Ubbestone, 17.3 ; in hedge of Denham Lane in Hoxne, 16.10; in Heveningham Park near the first, 16.9; the numerous trees composing ' Oak Pin ' wood in Risby are all pollards of 14-15 feet, evidently at first planted on south edge of Breck ; the largest at Three-oaks farm, half-mile west of Apsey Green in Framlingham, 14.4; two in pasture west of Bedingfield church 14.2; in pasture near Dial farm in Earls Soham, moribund and blasted by lightning (on whose bare, barked surface the Death-watch Beetle Xestobium tessellatum was Walking on 17 May), 13.8 ; in pasture at Warren or Rose farm in Framlingham, 12.8 ; at Walpole chapel, 12 feet; and almost the sole Oaks on Hut Hill in Knettishall are only twelve and barely ten feet.—Though irrelevant, I will add the girths of a few other Trees met with:—Elm, Ulmus campestris, L., blown down in Earls Soham, 14.6 (Trans, iii, p. xxiii); another at Brandeston, 15.3, where also are a Maple, Acer campestre, L., 11.4 and Alder Alnus glutinosa, Med., 11.2. Ilex aquifolium,

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L., Holly in Staverton Thicks, 67 inches (I.e. ii, p. xxxv). Beech, Fagus sylvatica, L., in my Monks Soham garden, 85 inches.

An unpollard, well-grown Crack Willow, Salix fragilis, L., at Cretingham, beside its east-bordering stream, 16.2. Black Poplar, Populus nigra, L., at Walpole, just 17 feet and beside the Ouse River at Knettishall, 14.6 (Btn); Lombardy Poplar, P. Italica, auet., in Thelnetham Fen, 13.1. Larch Larix Europaa, DC., in Belstead Woods, 5.3. A sturdy Ash Fraxinus excelsior, L., in Heveningham marshes is 11.9 ; but on the parish boundary of Thorndon and Rishangles, close to their connecting road, is a stupendous tree of just 15^ feet, with limbs massive as an old Oak : a veritable Ygdrasil and surely Suffolk's largest Ash*.

DEARTH OF BEECH IN EAST SUFFOLK.—After being always accustomed to a profusion of Fagus sylvatica, Linn., in the woods round London, in Surrey and the I. Wight, its sparcity in E. Anglia was one of the features that mainly caught my attention in September, 1889 when I first came (in my father's yacht) with our Member Capt. Hill to Suffolk. Dr. Whitaker has shown, in his paper to the Hants Philos. Soc. in 1892, that the soil of a high proportion of England suits the Beech, but also that this tree is particular respecting the geologic formations wherein it will thrive. He considered the basic Compound to be ealcic carbonate : ' the Beeches having, as it were, made a rough analysis of the soil and found therein a proper amount of calcic carbonate, have elected to settle ' in Ampfield Wood at the junetion of London-clay with its overlying Bagshot-sands to the north of Southampton, just as they have also in Denny and other ancient woodlands, at Beechen Lane, &c., in the New Forest, on that calcareo-argillaceous ground. Similar sufficiency of Lime is obviously present throughout Bucks, the higher Cotswolds, and the celebrated Burnham Beeches, every one of which last is hollow and their branches too old to have been pollarded, as tradition asserts, by Cromwell's troopers; indeed, these last have been considered, with plausible probability, to be of Danish date, because they still enclose an earthwork termed " Hordaknut " who, in 1040-2, preceded Eadweard the Confessor on the English throne. Caesar expressly states that he did not notice Beeches in Britain.—The exaet Hind was well aware of this tree's localness with us, for he carefully lists those villages wherein it grew wild in 1889, with illuminating result. All Over east Suffolk were merely ten places (Nayland, Stutton, Hitcham, Bealings Magna, Sibton, Kessingland, Bungay, Beccles *Many trees have been supposed the ' largest in the World' : I Will refer to but two. The Grizzly Giant, a Sequoia Fir (cp. Tians. iv, P- lxxv) of the Sierra Nevada, is over 93 feet in circumference at the ground (Strand Mag. 1897, p. 83) ; and a Cypr?ss, at ElTule to east of Oaxaca in Mexico, is 104 at 130 feet up the trunk, though its photo suggests more than one root-stock (Wide World Mag. 1909, p. 103V—CM.

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and Burgh Castle) where it grew thus. On the other hand, throughout the calcareous Breck of our NW. corner it abounds to further south than the Bury main road, and eastward round Harleston änd the adjoining Onehouse. Hence emerges the fact that neither our Pliocene sands, Boulder clay, nor Glacial drift, are at all to its liking. Who planted the fine belt of Beeches around the Old Minster in South Elmham ? — C L A U D E MORLEY. LARGE A S P E N S . — A r e there any specimens of Populus tremula, L., in Suffolk as large as the one near Little Hadham Hall in Hertfordshire ? This tree has a girth of nine feet five feet from the ground and, as nearly as I can estimate, it is about seventy feet high. Aspens of such a size are not at all common in the neighbouring counties of Essex and Cambs, nor indeed, I think, in any British county. Some years ago I noticed an ancient giant near Sudbury ; but it was much decayed and not, I think above thirty feet in height. A list of the grest Aspens in Suffolk would be of considerable interest.—P. B. M. A L L A N ; Aberhafesp, Montgomery, 11 March.

SCORPION I N S U F F O L K . — M r . Connor of Haiesworth found on 15 September last, in some foreign Potatoes [Solanum tuberosum, L., native to south America], purchased of a green-grocer (who knows no original locality for them) there, a Scorpion of about inches in length, which he recognised from familiarity with such animals in Australia. It I saw at his house on 16th.— P. J. BURTON, V.V. [That Scorpions are introduced into Britain on rare occasions is known (cf. Trans, ii, 279 and iv, note, 160); but none have come to Suffolk during at least the last dozen years.

This is quite possibly the cosmopolitan Scorpionid, Lychas Americanus, Koch, which extends to even St. Helena. The pretty little Scorpio Europeus, L., that Dr. Vinter and we found on the Riviera, is a good deal too small; by day they are very sluggish and live under stones among the foothills of the Alpes maritimes, &c ; one, caught by us on 29 March, subsisted but not very happily on House Flies, Musca domestica, there tili 9 April.— Ed.] M Y R I A P O D I N A N T S - N E S T . — W h i l e turning over small stones for Beetles in a pit on the Breck at Knettishall on 1 July, I came upon an apparently weak nest of Tetramorium caspitum, L., some workers of which were interested in a dead Polydesmus complanatus, L. A lens showed the latter to be partly disintegrated, and comparatively fresh. No suggestion of just such an association is made in Donisthorpe's ' Guests of Ants,' though Myriapoda are known to occur with ' ants ' under stones (p. 179); and perhaps this small species will consume almost any animalcarcases it happens to discover near its n e s t s . — C L A U D E MORLEY.

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A STRANGE CONFLICT.—I was most interested to see a Common Centiped curled round an Earthworm in my Haiesworth garden last September. The former, Lithobius forficatus, L., had encircled the latter, presumably Lumbricus terrestris, L., and seemed to be biting it if one may judge by its extraordinary contortions, causing both to roll about so conspicuously as to draw my attention. I regret I did not wait to witness the upshot of this surely rare battle.—DR. MELVILLE HOCKEN, v.v., 5 Oct. [The allied Myriapod genus Geophilus is known to devour this Earth-worm : cf. Trans, ii, 99.—Ed.]

T w o WATER-BEETLES NEW TO S U F F O L K * . — T w o or three Deronectes \2-pustulatus, Fab., occurred in the Gipping at Needham on 19 Aug. last. On 20 Sept. afternoon I made an especial search for it and netted a dozen in about an hour, eight of them at one sweep which shows them to be highly gregarious, in the water-weeds and fibrous roots close to the bank. With them, upon both occasions, was a single Brychius elevatus, Pz.—GEOFFREY BURTON ; 21 Sept. [We have been very slowly clambering upwards towards those 95 kinds of Waterbeetles, out of the total 137 in Britain, that have been found in Norfolk ; and at length have attained parity, with the above discovery in Suffolk of a species long known both there and in Essex.—Ed.] I took one Agabus biguttatus, Ol., in Framlingham last Sept.—C.M. SUFFOLK LADYBIRD N E W TO BRITAIN.—So long ago as July 1896, when staying with two Naturalists at Southwold, I was delighted to discover a m o s t ' likely '-looking wood in Blythburgh, that stretched from sandy heaths to the alluvial peat of marshes running thence to the sea between Walberswick and Dunwich : the Flora and Fauna since found in that single wood, ranging from arenaceophilous to paludose species, would fill a number of our Transactions! All the summer of 1900 I was again in Southwold and frequently bicycled, across the beautiful wild country passed Westwood Lodge, to explore this Foxburrow Wood : amplified in later years. The southern half of it was badly burned in 1929 (Trans, i, p. 67); soon Fungi, later füll of Diptera and Beetles, sprang from the dead Birch-trunks. Upon the fresh undergrowth of Sallow and Birch the uncommon Ladybird Coccinella 16-guttata, L., appeared during 1935-7 in Aug.-Sept. and, after hibernation, in early April. This undergrowth had become so dense Over the calcined area by March 1937 that keepers blazed a ten-feet-broad path for shootists through the young stems (I.e. 1937, p. cxlv), leaving in it only a single Larch about fifteen feet high and so prominent an object that * It has been complained that our Transactions contain an undue Preponderance of Insect-matter over other subjects. Members must emember that we can print only what they contribute : the remedy lies w itn themselves.—Editor, 1 Nov. 1941.

2c

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it has been constantly worked for Beetles since that date. But not tili mid-day on both 12 and 18 Sept. 1939 were beaten from it into the umbrella a beautiful Ladybird, two-fifths of an inch in length with double rows of three conspicuous (plus one above and below) spots on each elytron which is, Member Blair finds, the vor. \6-punctata, Fab., of old Pontoppidan's Coccinella quadripunctata, hitherto unknown in Britain. This species occurs all over Continental Europe and extends to Syria, whence Member Wiltshire's specimen, taken at Beirut in Sept. 1934 (Trans, ii, p. cxcvii), has inconspicuous elytral spots. Severe beating on 30 March 1940 produced from the Larch another, evidently hibernated, example; but this possessed no elytral spots, and thus approached the typical form which has only two spots upon each wing-case.—A Ladybird with but two spots on each was beautifully figured in 1813 by Donovan in his Nat. Hist. of British Insects, vol. xvi, plate 543, and called by him Coccinella quadripunctata ; but this was erroneous, for his beetle is very much smaller than the present one and nothing but a common colour-form (interpunctata, Haw., old Ent. Trans, i, 272) of our most frequent Suffolk Ladybird C. bipunctata, L.— Blythbro Wood was again thoroughly beaten, especially for this insect, the following autumn and in 1941 both spring and autumn, utterly fruitlessly. Hence we must regard the local tale of C. A-punctata, Pont., as told ; and suppose the progeny of examples, presumably introduced by the Forestry Commission when planting the southerly-adjacent heath with Pinus sylvestris about a decade ago, unable to persist on our vernally bleak coast or to have here found a too unpalatable Aphid diet.—CLAUDE MORLEY ; 15 Sept.

I retain the last sentence to show how rare this Ladybird is in its sole British locality ; but persistency in collecting succeeds when failure seems inevitable. When insect-life appeared moribund, represented by bedraggled Coppers, Small Heaths and Sympetrum Dragonflies, on 5 October Foxburrow Wood was thrashed again by Mr. Burton, Dr. Hocken and me for two hours, along with the southerly pines on heathland. Undaunted by failure, after lunch we attacked the New Delight Covert of old Spruces a quarter-mile further north, which for as long resounded to our beating-sticks. And thence feil to mine, among eleven other kinds of Ladybirds, a single (4th British) C. A-punctata, Pont.!—CM. STAG BEETLES P L E N T I F U L . — U p to the present there is little to report from the Stour District of Suffolk ; but, just south of the river, during early July nine male and five female Lucanus cervus, L., have occurred in my garden at D e d h a m : one I knocked down while it was in flight at dusk.—DR. C. H. S. VINTER ; 4

Aug.

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A NEW SUFFOLK CLICK.—A pair of Trachys minuta, Linn., was taken paired on 31 May last on a Sallow-leaf in Park Wood at Barking, with another half-dozen during the following week.

On 31 August a dozen were there and I expect a lot more, as 1 did not look further after I had boxed these.—GEOFF. BURTON ; 2 Sept. [Not recorded from Norfolk for a Century ; unknown in Essex ; occurs locally south of Thames, in Cambs, Hunts and Lincoln.—Ed.] ANOTHER SCOTS BEETLE IN SUFFOLK ( c p . p a g e 190 s u p r a ) . —

The one exception to last spring's horribly general dearth of Insects was the plenty in which the pretty pink Weevil Brachonyx pineti, Payk., abounded on the Scots-firs of our Breckland.

In Britain it was known to occur only very locally in the Tay, Dee and Moray districts from 1860 to 1914. In the latter year it was first discovered to be present, equally locally, on our Breck at Mildenhall by Mr. Fryer of Chatteris; a score of specimens were found at the adjacent Barton Mills on 8 September 1917 (Entom. Ree. 1918, p. 28); and it quickly spread to both Freckenham and Brandon there (I.e. 1918, p. 37 and 1920, p. 153 ; cf. E M M . 1909, p. 248). For twenty of years nothing more has been heard of it, though carefully sought by our late Treasurer Elliott and me annually. So I was delighted to meet with it a dozen miles further east, but still on the Breck, at Knettishall Heath on 21 May 1941, a very warm day with stifF southerly breeze and much sunshine. Here they were a good deal commoner than in the Breck's more central places, for one or two or three occurred upon all the young Pines, healthy trees that varied from six to fifteen feet in height, probably all wind-seedlings, growing in unorderly fashion on the heather and bracken of the open heath, remote from both road and river. All were beaten about 3 p.m. into an inverted umbrella, to which they are such good clingers that most were discovered after the receptacle had been gently shaken out with no jerk ; but a sharp tap by the beating-stick on their branches easily detaches them. Nothing but small size makes them hard to see, for pink colouration and elongate shape are both conspicuous, resembling nothing then present but the Froghopper Psylla pineti, Flor. ; nor do they feign death, but at once walk slowly upon their short legs. U n üke the Pine Weevil, Brachonyx does the trees no h a r m ; it lives on Pinus sylvestris throughout northern and central Europe, the larva eating between two joined needles which alone are thus arrested in their growth. The Suffolk records show it to hibernate in the perfect State and, consequently, to be in the larval during summer. T h e new brood began to appear there on 3 August this year.—CLAUDE MORLEY.

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RARE BARK-BORING BEETLE.—Last April I was so fortunate as to take a series of Piatypus cylindrus, Fab., from an old oaktree at Rowlands Castle near Portsmouth ; and on 7 June I had no difficulty in finding another dozen specimens there. I am sending a section of the oak, as the capture seems worth reporting in our Transactions. T h e Beetles appear to bore first through the bark, as here shown, and to lay their eggs in the cambian layer between this and the solid wood of the trunk.

The larvse are very slender and about five-eighths of an inch in length when fully grown ; they are white with the head pale brown and a slate-grey stripe running along the centre of the back. After ovipositing, the Beetles seem to feed in the tree's solid wood, for in it I could see quite a large number of their little holes and all were occupied, but so small a portion of the elytral apex remained visible that it was impossible to extract t h e m : the only way to secure specimens is to discover them still in their bark-holes, for the trunk-wood is too hard to cut away without damage to the Beetles.—FRANK C. STANLEY. [This is a very local insect, though often common where found ; Mr. Daniel Bidder first discovered it as British about 1812 in the New Forest, where it occurred to us on an old oak at Ramnor in July 1919, but hitherto nowhere eise in Hampshire. Its known distribution is confined to the southern counties, Berks, Monmouth, Hereford and Yorks. Mr. Stanley's dates go to show that the life-cycle is less regulär than was supposed by Dr. Chapman at E M M . viii, 103-32. We have taken its even rarer parasite, the clavicorn beetle Colydium elongatum, Fab., in the burrows of Xyloterus domesticus, L., in both bark and wood of beech, and in those of presumably the present Borer in beech, both at Denny Wood in the New Forest, during July of respectively 1930 and 1927.—Ed.]

SOME H A N T S BEETLES—.This year I have paid considerable attention to Coleoptera in all the time I could give them from April to August. T h e result is rather over three hundred different sorts, all kindly named by our Hon. Secretary, of which about fifty of the best may be of interest to our Members as Coming from mainly among old timber near the south coast in a previously unworked spot in south-east Hants.

My collecting here was termintaed abruptly, as next Monday I shall be a sailor—R.N. ! It is hardly necessary to add that my choice of the Navy was determined entirely by the possible opportunities of collecting abroad. The plums I have recently gathered are:—Cychrus rostratus; Notiophilus substriatus; Clivina fossor ; Stomis pumicatus ; Agonum assimilis ; Dromius sigma ; Hydroporus tessellatus; Heterothops praevia; Xantholinus tricolor; Lathrobium brunnipes; Achenium depressum; Syntomium aeneum ; Lestiva pubescens ; Silpha quadripunctata

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251

and thoracica; Cerylon histeroides and fagi; Micromalus flavicornis ; Lycoperdina bovistas; Librodor quadriguttatus; Rhizophagus ferrugineus; Silvanus Surinamensis; Lucanus, Dorcus and Sinodendron ; Aphodius consputus ; Trox scaber; Agrilus laticornis ; Elater elongatulus ; Melanotus castaneipes ; Sericus brunneus; Corymbites bipustulatus; Haplocnemus nigricornis; Anobium fulvicorne; Prionus coriarius; Pogonochasrus hispidus ; Cryptocephalus parvulus and Moraei; Chrysomela hyperici; Melasoma populi; Phaedon tumidulus ; Prasocuris j u n c i ; Galerucella nympheas; Hermaeophaga mercurialis ; Helops cceruleus ; Melandrya caraboides ; Tomoxia ; Liophlceus; Liparus coronatus; Cionus pulchellus and Dryoccetes villosus.—FRANK C . STANLEY, Rowlands Castle; 17 August.

A MITRE-BUG THAT HIBERNATES.—I enclose an interesting Insect that was found on the floor of my house here to-day. No doubt it came from the wood-basket beside the hearth, which contains all sorts of logs, including a good deal of Birch.— C . C . T . GILES, Hopton ; 7 March.

[The specimen received was a female of Acanthosoma hcemorrhoidale, L., (Hemiptera of SufFolk 1905, p. 2), which is a common kind on Birches of any degree of growth all over Suffolk and has often occurred to us so early in spring as to be suspected of hibernation, though we cannot recollect such a habit, confirmed by the present date, being previously mooted.—Ed.] MITRE-BUG N E W TO S U F F O L K . — W e had just returned from Shopping in Framlingham and were quaffing the cup that does not inebriate in the bosom of our family on the sunny lawn at 4 p.m. on 27 June, when life took on a roseate hue by the discovery of Acanthosoma tristriatum, Linn., Walking over the Secretarial leg ! For this is one of those delectable Bugs that occur upon only one kind of plant and that a rare one : from Juniper the late Mr. Albert Piffard and I beat it at Chipperfield Common in Herts on 9 August 1903, and our Hemiptera Recorder beat it at Boxhill in Surrey on 24 Sept. 1916. Now, round that Monks Soham lawn are Larch, Scots, Pine, Yew and three species of Cypress, but no Juniper. Hind records Juniperus communis, L-, as ' rare, if at all native in SufFolk', known on dry hills at only Ickworth Park, Dalham and Ampton, all in the west (Framlingham certainly has none) ; and Col. Charles Nurse said " I do not think there is any Juniper at Ampton now ; I have never seen it there, and it is very unlikely to be indigenous in our County " (in lit. 2 0 July 1 9 1 4 ) . In life this is a beautiful enamelled applegreen insect, with proboscis and antennae paler and both apically fuscous ; tarsi apically rufescent; basal angles of thorax broadly, and whole corium except its external margin, bright pale chestnut on which are indefinite marks, with didymated ones on membrane,

252

OBSERVATIONS.

fuscous ; a central mark on corium, apex and basal angles of scutellum, and the projecting apical angles of abdomen above, flavidous.—HON SECRETARY. [On Juniper, probably wheresoever that local plant is found from Newcastle to Guildford downs where I beat it again in Sept. 1939 ; abundant on Wilts downs about Salisbury, but unknown in Hants. I have heard of no other pabulum ; but my copy of Butler's 1923 Biology is not just now available.—E.C.B.] " A MITRE-BUG N E W TO SUFFOLK " (Erratum: supra page 188 last line, for M O R E read N O ; page 189 line 1 omit N O T , line 2 for BUT read AND NOT).—The Eurygaster maura, Linn., nymph that was swept in Thelnetham Fen on 8 Sept. 1940 emerged from its pupal skin on 20th, showing that the mottled form with thorax laterally paler and lateral scutellar marks ochreous-white is merely immature coloration, for by 23rd it has become much darker with whole integument hard. It lived in a glass-topped cardboard box with its dry herbage, eating nothing, tili at least 1 January 1941 but was dead on 1 February, doubtless slain by frost in its unheated bedroom ; but its life had extended far enough to prove hibernation. Other imagines were swept in the same Fen on 21 May 1941.—CLAUDE MORLEY. VOLANT WATER BOATMEN.—On the open heath to west of Foxburrow Wood in Blythburgh, a specimen of Notonecta glauca, L., was found inside my stationary car at 12.30 p.m., on 5 October last. A half-hour later a second was seen on the wing, with the heavy flight of Water-beetles, six feet from the ground and a foot above the car, upon which it feil rather than alighted immediately in front of the wind-screen ; but, finding no foothold there, dropped laterally on to the running-board, whence it again took flight at the same height. T h e day was fairly sunny, with small N N E . air and temperature rather above 60°. The attraction was doubtless the screen's glass, mistaken for water: a Iure well-known in Dytiscidae [cf. Trans, ii, 81.-Ed.] though, I believe, not hitherto recorded in Water-bugs.—P. J . BURTON, Lowestoft.

A N A P H I D ' S DISTRIBUTION.—Pemphigus filaginis, Fonsc., is known in our County from only its NE. corner (Trans, ii, 148), but is doubtless actually common wheresoever its foodplant, species of Gnaphalium, occurs. G. uliginosum, L., was growing in profusion among com at Apsey-green in Framlingham on 13 Sept. last, when most of their stems were white with this Aphid s flocculence.

No Apiones (I.e. iv, 65) were discoverable.— CLAUDE MORLEY. A N IMPORTED ORTHOPTERON.—I have been presented with a specimen of this handsome Cockroach, conspicuous in the basally pale costa of its wings. T h e donor does not help much with data, as all he could say was that it had been given him

OBSERVATIONS.

253

about 1939 by the, since removed, local greengrocer of Holton near Haiesworth who, he thinks, found it alive there in a bunch of Bananas.—P. J . BURTON, 2 3 Feb. [This is the second Suffolk specimen of the West Indies Nyctibora sericea, Burm., and exactly similar to that already recorded from Southwold at T r a n s , iii,

184.—Ed.]

Libellula depressa, L I N N . — I n normal years these handsome Dragonflies are local over isolated ponds. But, just as a quarter-century ago (Entom. 1917, p. 165), this year there has been a distinct incursion of them throughout at least northcentral Suffolk. Specimens were first noted in Bigods-lane, between Framlingham and Dial-farm in Earls Soham, on the warm 24 May ; and others appeared the next day at Monks Soham, four miles west. At both they continued intermittently, as well as close to Dial farm, up to at least 24 June ; before which date several specimens were seen in the Waveney marshes by M r .

Jim Burton at Shipmeadow on 8 June and by Mr. Goddard at Oakley on 22nd. Actually over the Waveney at the latter was also then Aying the beautiful Calopteryx splendens, Harris (Exposit. Engl. Insect. 1782), hitherto noted in Suffolk at only Ipswich, Snape, West Stow, Brandon and Beccles, though doubtless frequent along the whole extent of our Little Ouse and Waveney rivers. Depressa was seen at Kenton on 25, and Monks Soham up to 28, June ; at Oakley osier-bed and Thorndon Fen on 3 July, Bedfield on 4th, Holton Park and numerously in Shipmeadow marshes on 6th, Monks Soham on 1 Ith and 20th, Raydon Wood on 13th, Brandeston and Cretingham on 17th, and finally at Catfield Fen in Norfolk on 23 July. [Our friend Col. F. C. Fräser of Bournemouth reports an immigration of this species in that district so late as 10 July last (Entom.

1941, 264). No place of origin is suggested.—Ed.] INFLUX

OF

DRAGONFLY'S EYESIGHT.—Lunch was finished about 1 . 4 5 on 12 July last, and I was still sitting at table over what would, in unwar-time, have been wine. Suddenly came the gentle rustle of gauzy wings and I saw /Eschna cyanea, Müll., fly through the open french-window at four feet from the ground with the utmost grace and leisureliness. He swooped upwards; without alighting seized, though I could not see in what manner, a small House Fly (Homalomyia canicularis, L.) that was sitting with others on the ceiling just two feet from the lintel of the door, which is a foot lower than the ceiling ; made a volte face within his own length, and as gracefully passed out through the door. T h e last opens outwards, so that he must have been in bright sunlight and at least six feet away when he saw and recognised as palatable prey that Fly, sitting on the shaded white ceiling, itself only seven mm. or hardly over a quarter-inch in length. Such remarkable fact recalls the blinking eye of the fictional Fly on Big Ben ! — C L A U D E MORLEY.

254

OBSERVATIONS.

T H E ISOSCELES DRAGONFLY.—NO Suffolk. records are yet added to the old ones of Trans, i, p. 22. T h e species is figured by neither Harris in 1782 nor Donovan 1792-1816; the first known British example is an unlocalised male, dated 28 June 1818, and first female, from Whittlesea Mere on 5 August 1824, both now in the Dale collection at Oxford ( E M M . 1908, 203). This JEshna Dalii, of Leach's MS., is first recorded in Abel Ingpen's 1827 Inst. Brit. Ins., p. 9 0 ; John Curtis' 1829 Guide Brit. Ins., no. 45 ; and Stephen's 1829 Brit. Cat., p. 308 : ' In mus. Britan., Dominorum Dale et Haworth,' nec Steph. JEshna rufescens, L i n d . : " T h e only species of Libellulidae I do not possess. Mr. Newman states it ' not uncommon at Yarmouth,' likewise occurs at Halvergate, no great distance from Yarmouth, and Whittlesea M e r e " (Steph. Illus. Mand. 1835, 82). JEschnia rufescens: ' England, local in the South ' (Hagen, Ent. Ann. 1857, 54).

JEschna isosceles, Müll. : ' T h e only dated records I possess are two near Norwich in 1871, and one in the Fens in 1893 ' (Lucas 1900, 213). Bath alone, of these earlier authors, correctly gives its July emergence. T h u s we find its British distribution confined to Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambs. ; and under a dozen specimens, of which McLachlan had seven, then extant in collections. But Lucas' book gave so strong an impetus to Odonata-study that hardly a year has since passed without the species being noted in Norfolk (only): Thouless took it there about 1901, Edelsten saw one in 1902; Porritt took five near Stalham on 30 June-1 July 1903, and saw ' probably Over thirty, confined to a mile of w a t e r ' ; near Zürich Morton found it on 3 July 1904 ; Dobson took seven near Stalham on 7-9 July 1905 and saw one on 6th, ' seeing and catching being two very different things with these crafty insects' : one he vainly stalked for f-hour.—Indeed, I suspect that its extreme wariness and agility, as much as dearth of local collectors, account for its scarcity in collections; for very few came home on 23 July last, with Mr. P. J. Burton and our Hon. Secretary provided with a short-handled butterfly-net and an ' all-purposes' net respectively, from a spot (a couple of miles from Stalham) where JE. isosceles abounded in the most amazing profusion. No section of any dyke was without its steadily patrolling specimen ; if two met, they would whiz off at about 100 m.p.h. across the marsh, often there being joined by a third ; and one could look nowhere without seeing the typically brown forms, for IE. grandis was quite absent. It is likely to have been the commonest Dragonfly present, though the slower O. cancellatum and glimpsing Agriones, &c., were difficult of parity. On 7 September JE. juncea, L., was not rare in Blythbro Wood and M r . Burton netted two or three.—JOHN L. MOORE, Gorleston Secretary.

OBSERVATIONS.

255

T w o WATERFLIES N E W TO S U F F O L K . — A n undated record of Limnophilus xanthodes, McL., from Redgrave Fen (Entom. 1941, 186) reminds me that I ought long ago to have brought this Broads species forward as Suffolcian. It is always obtainable in profusion from mid-May to early June on the sallows in Catfield, Horning and Sutton marshes of Norfolk, whence I was glad to send it to our Member Mr. Morton in 1931 ; and on 14 May 1938, my earliest date of emergence, it turned up at Barnby Broad in Suffolk. (Enter it next before L. lunatus at Trans, i, p. 191). Also the first Suffolk Phryganea minor, Ct., flew in to light of Monks Soham house at 10 p.m. on 28 July 1941 ; there not seen before in near forty years' residence !— CLAUDE MORLEY.

Hylophila bicolorana, FSL., LARVA.—Extremely pale yellowgreen and about one inch long ; transversely thick and round.

Head and three following segments incrassate like those of Sphingids, remainder tapering to almost a point at the anal claspers.

A conspicuous oblique cream-coloured line on sides of each of two or three first segments and an inconspicuous similar line on remaining ones; spiracles ill-defined; numerous minute elevated white granules below spiracular line and a few very light hairs above it. On oak, Barking Woods, 2 June last. The cocoon is boat-shaped, very tough, firm and pure white.— E. W. PLATTEN. [Mr. Platten considers both Stainton's and South's larval descriptions to be very poor; Meyrick's is none too explicit:—Green, head whitish; subdorsal line yellow, forming oblique bars on segments 5-12 ; spiracular line pale yellow, raised on segments 3 and 4 ; a dorsal prominence on 4 tipped with yellow.]

HABITS OF Polia chi, LINN.—These Moths are not uncommon on walls here from late August tili mid-September, and I take one or two before breakfast often. They are funny things : I have been unable to make one fly, for if you poke them off the wall where they sit, they simply fall to the ground and lie on their backs, shaming death. So they are easy to catch. T h e proportion of females is very small.—E. H U G H BUXTON, Ardmor, Gatehouse-of-Fleet, Galloway; 16 Sept. [Such may assist our Stowmarket Members to confirm Dr. Bree's unique Suffolk record of this northern species.—Ed.] RED-UNDERWINGED M O T H (Memoir S.N.S. 1937, p. 51).—'A splendid form, brunnescens of Warren, with quite dark hind wings, near Needham Market in 1905 ' ought to read : Taken on wall of the barn opposite Sproughton mill in 1899 or 1900. I remember living with my parents at 465 Bramford-road in Ipswich at the time of capture, before I first moved to Needham in 1902; doubtless the exact date is upon the specimen in Harwood's collection, presumably still kept by Mr. Bernard's

r

256

OBSERVATIONS.

sister at Fern Villa in Sudbury. Other Continental aberrations are given at Entom. 1941, p. 157, of which one from Devon has yellow hindwings.—E. W. PLATTEN, 9 Aug. [The Sproughton form, exhibited also by M r . Blyth from Walton-on-Naze (Proc. S N S . ) , has the hindwings' usual red replaced by dark maroon-brown. Tutt knew only three British abb. : with blue hindwings, dull-red hindwings, and very dark forewings (Noct. Varr. 1892, 50).—Ed.] COMITAL

STATUS

OF

Eustrotia luctuosa,

ESP.,

EXPANDED —

Four years ago, at the publication of our Lepidoptera ' Memoir,' this Noctuid (there No. 272) had been regarded as totally confined throughout Suffolk to the Breck District of its NW. corner, where it was Aying at Brandon in suzishine at 2 p.m. on 14 August 1939. T h e first brood was not rare at Freckenham there on 16 June 1899 ; I have seen several from Beaconsfield in Bucks and Mr. Doughty netted one Aying outside Helpstone Wood near Peterboro on 31 May 1930.

Now we know E. to occur on the Glacial Gravel of east Suffolk from one taken at light in Sibton during 1937 (Col. Hawley); on the heavy Boulder (or possibly Kimeridge) Clay from one taken by day in Billingford Upper Street, opposite Hoxne, in July 1940 (supra, p. 2 0 1 ) ; and on Chalky Boulder Clay at Monks Soham.

For I was no less than astounded to net a male Aying in sun at 2 p.m., with the hardly visible Aight usual in such black-andwhite moths (cp. supra, p. 137, line 25), in a grassy lane here on 1 September 1941 ; and that it was no chance visitant, but part of a definitely local colony, was demonstrated by the presence of two females with probosces deep into Ragwort Aowers only a few yards away : all were much worn at so late a date, attributable to the inclemencies of August. One, however, of a further half-dozen on 3rd was quite fresh ; these occurred Aying, and on Aowers of both and at the same spot as Ist and a half-mile further south in northerly light breeze. M r . Platten took one in his Needham garden on 12 August, and saw Ave more on 2 Sept. in Barking Wood, where Geof. Burton noted it on 5 July, 17 and 31 Aug. and 4 Sept. Finally on 9th specimens were noted slightly to both north and south of the above Monks Soham captures, as though the species tended to spread. Shall we eventually come to regard the species in Suffolk as generally distributed ?—CLAUDE

luctuosa

ffil f SP' II

i\y

Senecio jacobcea

Pulicaria dysen

MORLEY. NOTODONTID

NEW

TO S U F F O L K . — N o t

pigra

tili

Mr.

Chipperfield,

who recently found at Barking, pointed the fact out to me last week have I noticed that a spotted Standing in my collection among L., is actually C. H b long naturalised in Norfolk and Kent. This is No. 55^o

curtula,

Pygara anachoreta,

OBSERVATIONS.

257

in our 1937 M e m o i r ; cf. page 97.

The specimen in question occurred to me at a light-trap, facing SW., in the Bramford-road at Ipswich so long ago as 1898.—E. W. PLATTEN ; 3 Sept.

ELEPHANT-HAWK'S WANDERLUST.—A fully-fed larva of Deilephila elpenor, L., was found crossing a garden gravel-path here on 5 Sept., searching for winter sleeping-quarters ; now he is snoozling in the breeding-box I keep for such discoveries in my study. This year I had by the moat a more than usual quantity of self-sown Epilobium hirsutum, which accounts for his presence and probably that of others of his kind.—DULCIE L. SMITH, Giffards Hall, Wickhambrook; 9 Oct. [They very rarely wander from food-plant thus.—Ed.]

Acherontia Atropos, L I N N . , IN 1 9 4 1 . — I have recently come across several caterpillars of the Deaths-head Moth at Monks Eleigh, feeding on Potato leaves.—FRANK BURRELL, Fornham St. Martin ; 5 August. [ M R . BAKER has had several at Reydon ; some emerged in September.—Ed.] MORE Eriogaster lanestris ' NESTS.'—Can you kindly teil me the name of a Caterpillar [described] that was last year in my garden here on an Amelanchier and is this year, only a few yards away, on an Almond whereon it was first noticed low down in a large Cluster, some four inches long by three broad and quite two in thickness : one mass of caterpillars. Also they have practically stripped a Prunus growing twenty yards away. But little damage was done to the Amygdalum tree and less to the first-named ; a few were on wild Pyrus Malus, L., though I have seen none on Hawthorn. T h e Revd. E . C . USHERWOOD, Belstead Rectory, near Ipswich ; 26 June.—I bred two males and a female on 2-3 March last from Framlingham larvae, see page 197 supra. BERNARD TICKNER. MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA NEAR NEEDHAM.—This has been a poor year in my experience. The best of my captures [besides those entered for convenience elsewhere.—Ed.] have been one Diacrisia mendica in a Needham spiders-web; 8 Hadena ochroleuca, 19 Aug.-4 Sept. at Barking, where were single Caradrina subtusa on 18 Sept. and Monima gothica so late as 18 May. A few Melanchra reticulata were in Needham garden during July, with M. dentina on 25 June as well as in Barking woods on 15 and 19th; there many Palimpsestis or were Aying round Aspens at dusk on 21st. From 18 eggs of Ptilophora plumigera, found upon Maple-twigs at Barking on 9 Feb., that hatched on 14 April, only two larvae successfully pupated ; only one 2 emerged 29 Nov.—GEOFFREY BURTON

258

OBSERVATION.

WESTLKTON LEPIDOPTERA.—I have spent a few odd days at Westleton, only two miles inland from Dunwich, this year but in unfortunate weather : in mid-April Parthenias was Aying sparingly, some Piniperda were on pine and four Vanessa polychloros taken for ova; Villica larvae were in their usual ample numbers but only one of E. rubi, of which I have counted seventyfive within two hundred yards in autumn, was seen this severe spring. Fuciformis had emerged by 1 June and on 26th both ova and larvae were obtained, Sphinx pinastri was then newly emerged, and on sallow Vinula plentiful. By 30th Moneta larvse abounded on garden Delphinium and garden Valerian was well patronised

by Elpenor, Porcellus, hosts of Gamma and [as at Walpole (Btn) and Needham (GBtn)] of Advena. All my Arctiids hibernated perfectly, but many dozens of Fuliginosa, &c, bred so true to type that I fear the County will be overstocked by the multiplicity I have released !—J. A. WEBSTER, Threadneedlestreet, E.C., 12 July.

Several visits to the same locality about the end of August showed larvae of S. pinastri to be unusually plentiful, but beating them must be avoided as many become injured and so tightly do they cling as to be found upon two occasions on already beaten branches of Scots-fir, that also harboured those of Piniperda and Piniaria. Those of Leporina, Dromedarius and Ziczac feil from Alder ; many Rubi from heaths are now feeding on Raspberry ; and others taken were Populi, Palpina, Furcula and on Elm one Carpini. Imagines netted included Agrotis strigula, Myrtilli, Festucce and Prunata. Every pole was tenanted

by Tragopogonis, which issued numerously from each crevice when probed by a twig; and on one small post twenty-one sleeping Pararge Megcera were counted. Elsewhere, a few hours on the Breck turned up Subtusa and so many evacuated eggs on Poplars that a local plague of S. salicis seems probable; earlier, in Bentley Woods had been seen Adippe, Polychloros, dozens of quite typical Sibylla and one female Apatura Ins, resting just too high to be nettable !—ID., 14 October.

OUR BUTTERFLIES OF YORE.—I am glad to hear Butterflies are so numerous in Suffolk this year, for very few are reported to be on the wing in Kent, Surrey and Sussex. When I hved at Ipswich in 1872-3, Polychloros was practically the commonest Vanessa ; but after that time old Garrett saw none. He took eighteen specimens of Iris in a Single afternoon on a Mountainash at Bentley Woods (Trans, supra ii, 290) in 1868, a very wonderful year in which I caught my first Coltas hyale at Brisley in Norfolk, when seven ! What a splendid place tor Insects was Old Hall Wood in Bentley: I well remember, in the hot July of 1881, there watching five Iris playing about the

OBSERVATIONS.

259

top of an Oak, and dozens of Sibylla Aying along the ride I was Standing in. Now Erebia asthiops is abundant here.—F. W. FROHAWK, Gargrennan, Galloway, N.B. ; 10 Aug. SOME M O T H S OF 1 9 4 1 . — C . chamomile was found in my Stowmarket garden on 19 May ; and on 22 June D. Orion in Bentley Woods, where its larva occurred on 17 August. Many P. moneta larvse were on Delphinium-plants in the same garden during May [and many in Shipmeadow marshes b-y the Waveney on 8 June.—Ed.] ; and P. festucce flew to Buddleia racemosa flowers there about 20 August. C. coryli was found on 21 June, and its larva on 17 August, in Bentley Woods. H. dubitata came to Buddleia flowers at Stowmarket in mid-August [and one was sitting in a Monks Soham outhouse at 9 p.m. on 3 May.—Ed.] ; several H. herberata were bred from Bury larvae on 21 June ; M. prosapiaria occurred among pine near Aldeburgh in early August; and M. pulveraria on 18 June in Barking Woods, with later kinds mentioned below by Mr. Platten, who that day found there S. ligustri sitting on aspen. N. dromedarius turned up on 21 June at Belstead, where was beaten on 17 August a larva S. fagi [another, f-grown, off oak in Blythburgh Wood on 7 Sept. by Mr. P. J. Burton.—Ed.], S. pavonia female, that emerged on 25 May, attracted three males in my Stowmarket greenhouse, and a pairing was obtained.—H. E. CHIPPERFIELD, Great Yarmouth ; 14 Sept.

O U R LARGE F R I T I L L A R I E S . — W e feit that something like a small Informal Excursion of the Society was being held when Mr, and Mrs. Chipperfield, Mr. Geoff. Burton and I foregathered at Barking Woods on 13 July, a warm summer's day with rather too much cloud and a stiffish variable wind. Argynnis Paphia was [seen at Drinkstone and] Aying commonly (cf. Trans, supra, p. 206), and presently the first called me to observe a very worn female that kept visiting one spot; we saw her oviposit and, when she had finally fiown away, on hands and knees discovered eggs lain on extreme tips of growing Moss (neither Liehen nor trunks : pace Trans, supra, p. 70) at the base of an Ash-tree, some foot from the ground and near Violets, Viola canina, L- I lensed the eggs and quite clearly saw Paphia's peculiar ribbed strueture. Two speeimens were Aying of A. Adippe [up to 3 Aug.], many of which were found basking on Cnicus palustris thistle-flowers in Bentley Woods on 6th by us [and on 13th by Mr. P. J. Burton and our Hon. Secretary, who noted others at Raydon Wood that day and at Knettishall Heath, in the Breck, on 3 August]. Most interesting is the definite presence at Barking of at least one A. Aglaia, considered ' probably extinet' in Suffolk (Mem. SNS. 1937, p. 102); we obtained a clear view of its underside while at rest. Beautifully fresh V. polychloros were just emerging ; L. Sibylla becoming worn ;

250

OBSERVATIONS.

T. querem and w-album on the wing, with a profusion of Z. ülipendula. Gnats are unusually vindictive, and have punetured C f dozens of times, this year; one Mosqmto, Anopheles maculipennis, dabbed arm near the P - d m^the wood, and maculipenms, uauueu m j — ,, • , p- w it is in a sling with wrist immoveable for the present.—E. W. PLATTEN, 2 1 July.

I much enjoyed a real « old-times' visit to Bentley Woods on 6 Tuly which was the first occasion for a score of years that I have been there when Sibylla is freshly emerged; they were very common and some in such pink of perfection that they can hardly have flown at all. Adippe are stül plentiful: why call it S L rCydippe, Linn. 1761, is one of the ' new -old namef forced downoür throats by the R. Entomological Soaety s Qieck list of the British Rhopalocera in its 1934 Genenc Names S British Insects > 2 , p . 13, o'n account of its m c r e antepagmanon of Adippe—or some such utterly inane reason-after bemg known as Adippe since at least 1795 (Levon. pl. x) . The index to the 1934 Names was so faulty that it had to be reprin e d . Ed ] It was most curious to see these early White Admirals and High Browns Aying at the same time as late Orange Tips and Hollv Blues. Light Emeralds were common; and I saw t . pustulata at Needham on 5 July. Mr. Copperfield t o o k a f r e s h Apoda limacodes on a lime-leaf in Bentley Woods on 6th and I should think Monacha is become one of the most abundant Moths there now, for dozens of fully-fed larv ffi were observed A rather large dark brown Fly with long legs and body, a rea ly eviUooking Vulture-fly, was not rare [doubtless Empts essellata, FAI.] often with other Insects and once a Click-beetle on his beak.—Id. 7 July.

This year I have taken five A. Paphia i n B a r k i n g Woods where the New Forest stock seems to be thriving and seve a pairs were then Aying [up.to 7 Aug.] in <g, and on ^ A u g u s saw Ave indigenous specimens in Sir Christopher w i a g i y woods at Saxham, with one A. Adippe and Theda quercu^ There I o ° on 21 June were T. rubi and Euchdta glyphea.

On 13JuIy T w-album was so numerous round the tops of small Elms at H a d J f h T h a T I took a score: eight with a Single s w e e p o f t h e " e t ' I n Hadleigh garden on 14 June w a s a p a i r of 7 w m «

St. Edmunds; 4 Aug.

^ r J s f i f w ^ Ä »

OBSERVATIONS.

261

(Mem. 102) is later than the following one and the past forty years have been utterly blank. Mr. Henry Calver of Ipswich showed me in 1896 a lovely specimen in his collection that he had captured in early July 1888 near the north boundary of Belstead, close to Belstead Brook and just south of Gusford Hall, then colloquially known as Waspe's Waste.—E. W. PLATTEN. OUR PERVASION BY Vanessa c-album, LINN.—We regarded the one or two 1936 records of the Comma Butterfly in our County with such scepticism that they were held over from our Transactions ; but the numerous ones of 1937 obviously dispelled such doubt (Trans, ii, 289) and its subsequent distribution has been rapid throughout all Suffolk. Early this year DR. HILL writes from the Limes in Stowmarket that " it may interest our Members to know that the commonest Butterfly seen in my garden here last summer was the Comma, apart from Large Whites." Solitaires, Aying in a Stonham meadow on 5 April (Miss FOWLER), at Wenhaston on 13 April (BTN) and Fritton on 10 May (MOORE), alone were noted in our County through the entire spring in consequence of its frigid temperature. Like Mr. Jim Burton's Polychloros at Shipmeadow on 8 June, all hibernators persisted late for the same reason ; and the next V. c-album noted was a faded and abraded female on 24 June in Monks Soham garden. Others appeared the following day at both Barking wood and rectory, along with V. Urtica and, at Coddenham chalk-pit, G. rhamni; also the last Malvce was then Aying with the first Sylvanus, but how rarely they overlap !

Final Tages was seen on 19th at Framlingham. ' After their abundance last autumn, I expected many Commas here this spring but saw only one' (CANON WALLER, Waldringfleld; 2 July).—The new brood appeared on 13 July numerously in Bentley, with a half-dozen in Raydon woods, (BTN) on 16th ; and 28th at Monks Soham. On 20th form Hutchinsoni at Barking (CHIPPERFIELD), and 2 Aug. at Apsey green in Framlingham. ' No hibernators have occurred here this spring; but to-day theflrstof the new brood, of the form Hutchinsoni, was noted on garden Aowers in Dedham ' (DR. VINTER, 4 Aug.); two in Blythburgh Wood that day (BTN) ; one in a Framlingham garden on 9th (Miss VINTER), another at Apsey-green there on 16th (MLY) and at Hintlesham on 21st (Miss FOWLER). An imago in Shipmeadow marshes, and a larva on elm at Walpole, on 24th ; the latter pupated in sleeve before 7 Sept. and emerged on 18th (BTN). Comma is much rarer here this year than in recent ones (F. G. BAKCOCK, Drinkstone, 11 Sept.); seen singly at south Rushmere on 14 (CHEVALLIER), at Monks Soham on 16 Sept. and 2-3 Oct. (MLY), at Haiesworth on 30 Sept. and Blythburgh Wood on 5 Oct. (BTN). Singly at Barking on 20 April, 2 and 18 May, 25 June, 13 and 20 and 21 July, 2 and 17

OBSERVATIONS.

262

i!

'•) Ii;

Aug., 2 and several on 18 Sept. (GBtn). Latterly in Gorleston garden on 17 Oct. (Moore); on Ivy b l o s s o m w i t h A a / a n a a t Monks Soham on 13, and the entirely sunny 20 and 23, October.

Finally many, sometimes four at once on flowers, visited south Rushmere garden in October ( R a c h e l M. K i n g , in which month two were noted at Walpole on 19th (Btn), several at Waldringfield up to 20th (Wlr), and theMast w s sitting sunning itself in Monks Soham garden on 26th (Mly). [lutt somewhat too complacently remarks that both Hutchinson,, Dbld. and lutescens, Bath. " are much antedated " by aberrat.on pallidior, Pet., for the form with ochreous underside (Ent Ree. VU o 221) for he forgot the last is pre-Linnean ! Its reference s '' Papü o Testudinarius Comma pallidior," ?emcr PapRrit Icon 1717 iv, figg. 7-8. Pallidior so well desenbes this V m andIHutchinsoni i f so unLatin a word, however that we should like to see the former adopted: which post-Linnean author first perpetuated it ?—Ed.] Vanessa polychloros, L i n n . , b r e d . On 8 last June, a disreputable, bedraggled and way-worn Butterfly was taken while sitting in the sun on a post at Suffolks n o r t h border in the Shipmeadow marshes.

Immediately she , n e a hundred eggs, whence larv* duly emerged thal. ed up perfectly and by 23 July pupat<5d asthey should 1! ha,ithe nieasure of distributing series of chrysalides to four or tive Members, one of w h i c h W g e d t h u s - s p e c i m e n 1 o u t b e t t e n 11 1 a m on 12 August, flew soon after 5 p.m.; 2 out l l - i p.m., wings dry by 5 ; 3 out at 6.15, both on 13th; 4 out at 8 a^n. v üfwings dry, 5 and 6 and 7 out and dry between 3-5 p.m.

Tand 9 and 10 out between5-7 not dry tili 9 p.m. on 14th ; 11-14 L t all dry by 9 a.m. on 15th; and 15 out at 3, but not dry tiU T l rn the same day • 16th was out at 4 p.m., with wings dry 5 p.m. the same aay , e merged the following day.— ? ^^BraTON^Lf^estoft.— Large^ortoiseshells were rather r 0 mLnerTn N 'sp L ring than summer in Barking Woods ^ e r olnnp T have seen 13 this year on 13 and 20 April, l ana i ^ m Ä

y

X

d

17 a n d 19 A u g u s t t

(GBtn)

Leiston vicarage as early as 28 March (Mf^ry Hintlesham on 4 Aug and Stonham o n 1 7 * (Mi S F o m Gisleham rectory garden on 1 bept. , ruyuiui

nrgioiw, w<. ¥

h

> ),

late one, which appeareu

after having been in pupa nearly two years. I collected

OBSERVATIONS.

263

near Haiesworth in July 1939, and its companions all duly came out in late May 1 9 4 0 . — D R . HOCKEN, Haiesworth Secretary.

A DEPRAVED BUTTERFLY.—To-day I found in Montgomeryshire a dead Sheep, lying beside a hill stream at about nine hundred feet. T h e ribs on the left side had been broken away, probably by a Fox in order to get at the heart and lungs, which were missing. Inside the exposed thorax, sitting upon the remains of the lungs, was a Vanessa Io, Linn. So intent was the Butterfly upon its unsavoury meal that it did not fly up until the end of my walking-stick came within a few inches of it. Düring my inspection of the carcass, Io flew round me, annoyed like a Wasp from its n e s t ; and, as soon as I had retired a pace or two, it settled to resume its feast.—P. B. M. ALLAN, 15 April.

ANOTHER Vanessa Antiopa, L I N N . — O n e day last summer I saw a Camberwell Beauty, exactly like the illustration in Revd. F. O. Morris 1868 ' British Butterflies,' close to ironmonger Well's shop in Saxmundham. I pursued it, with a large crowd staring at me, tili it flew over a house and was lost to view.—BRIDGET COPINGER HILL, Park House, Saxmundham; 3 0 March 1 9 4 1 .

BLACK ' W H I T E ADMIRALS.'—The frigid spring seems to have induced a curious extent of melanism in, at least, our Lepidoptera this year. Mr. Moore bred the dark form (cf. Trans, ii, 275} of Biston betularius from both Gorleston, where also he caught the dark imago, and Blythburgh as well as from a larva on Rose at Caister in Norfolk. On 8 July Mr. Geof. Burton captured a very dark L. Sibylla, ' nearly black with only small white markings' (Platten), in Bentley Woods, where on 13th I was so fortunate as to net a magnificent female ab. nigrina, but far from a perfect specimen. It is totally black without a white scale anywhere on the upper side, nor has it bands on the lower surface: as it sailed round low bramble-flowers one could teil its identity by nothing but the peculiar flight. Near it was a male of normal size and under side, but its white bands are narrow and much suffused.* Dr. Haines writes on 20th, " I hear the ab. nigrina has been taken quite freely in the New Forest, but I myself have seen only typical specimens commonly in our garden;.

Mr. Castle Russell is said to have got six, though this is mere hear-say" (CLAUDE MORLEY).—I have been pursuing the melanic Admirals this year in woods near Portsmouth; and on 13 July eaw one that would not come within ränge of my net the whole afternoon. On 28th another dashed past me at terrific speed ; I took no more than an impulsive swipe at it, and the thousandeth chance won : my first black Admiral was netted !

To-day 7 August, a third was quietly sitting on Bramble-flowers as soon as I reached the woods, and made no difficulty about

*

See other similar Suffolk records in ' Country

1941. —Ed.

Life,' S e p t e m b e r

264

OBSERVATIONS.

being caught; then, while the cyanide-pot was being extricated from my pocket, the rascal slipped out through the net's only hole : I was upset! No more appeared tili I got right through to the far side of the wood, where was number four : this time I was careful no mistake should be made, and now the beauty is nicely pegged out on my setting-board. Several Commas, of the var. Hutchinsoni, have been observed here ; along with a male Musk Beetle Aromia moschata, L., and both sexes of Prionus coriarius, L . ( F R A N K STANLEY).

WANDER-LUST OF Limenitis Sibylla, L . , P E R S I S T S . — I saw a White Admiral on 20 July in the garden of south Rushmere Hall, where I never remember to have observed one before (RACHEL M. KING, 22 July). I obtained a clear view of a Sibylla on 22 July, as it flew between shops in the busy south London Road at Lowestoft; I have hitherto never seen it in this town (JACK GODDARD, 23 July). One in Hintlesham woods on 23rd (Miss FOWLER). It may interest Members to know that I observed one Sibylla in my Stowmarket garden on 25 J u l y : not a common visitor ! (DR. J. P. HILL, 3 Aug.). A solitary specimen in the midst of Haiesworth on 30 July (DR. HOCKEN). One Sibylla was sunning itself on some brambles in Sir Christopher Magnay's woods at Saxham on 3 August (BERNARD TICKNER).

One was Aying yesterday in the orchard at Hinderclay Hall; I have never come across it before (H. L . HORSFALL, 5 Aug.).

Single specimens of the typical form were noticed in Thelnetham Fen, Suffolk, on 3 August as well as on 23 July in Fenside lane at Catfield marsh in Norfolk, a favourite hunting-ground of our eider Members who never met with it there (P. J. BURTON).

[Dates suggest all to have been ovipositing females.—Ed.] GREGARIOUS SLEEP OF Epinephele hyperanthus, L.—A couple of Suffolk Naturalists were prowling about in a wood near Waldingfield on 26 August, when we found about 7.30 a log on which twenty Ringlet Butterflies had taken up positions of rest, apparently for the night. The log was barked, had weathered a uniform grey, and about half way along its length an arm jutted o u t ; under this projection the Ringlets were congregated on the side facing east, the darkest one at that time of day and also most sheltered, as the wind was chiefly westerly though variable. There we found Lyccena Icarus and Chrysophanus phloeas asleep too, singly on flower-heads and stems, facing all quarters; and watched E. janira settle itself down for the night on a hedge Maple-leaf. Do Ringlets habitually thus settle together; and, if so, do they always choose the east aspect or is such determined by the wind: have they a common flight before dusk, or do they settle severally mto the night-group ? All best wishes to the Society Naturahsts .— IVY W. CORFE, Ridgeholme, Waldingfield-road, Sudbury; 31 Aug.

OBSERVATIONS.

265

A ' CLOUDED-YELLOW YEAR.'â&#x20AC;&#x201D;My first Colias edusa, Fab., was observed on 1 July and it looked like a female ovipositing ; on 6th I saw another, but unfortunately no clover-Aelds are about here so I cannot say whether this is likely to become an ' edusa year' (FRANK STANLEY, Hants; 7 July). M R . F . N. HICKS of Alderton Lodge writes that he saw one in Hyde Park, London, on 2 3 June ; M R . HOOPER M A Y one at Corfe MĂźllen in Dorset on 3 Sept. ; Member DEREK EDWARDS at Ashford in Kent t h e n ; and Miss KEEBLE of Sproughton reports ' numbers' on Babbacombe Cliffs in Devon on 16 Aug. (in lit. 5 Sept.). I saw an Edusa, Aying very wildly in the chilly gale, at Walpole on 5 August (BURTON) ; one Aying at Drinkstone in early August (Member F. G. BARCOCK, Gardenhouse-farm there, in lit.); one in a field at Falcons Hall in Rickinghall on 28 August (Miss LONGSHAW there, in lit. 5 Sept.) That day three males were careering along Monks Soham lanes in a westerly halfgale, going against wind ; and on 1 Sept. a half-dozen more were there (MORLEY). One male appeared at Lackford in the Breck ( M I S S CORFE) and another at Aldringham on 2 9 August ( M R .

C. H. LAY, F.R.I.B.A.); ' brood has been discovered in a cloverfield on 3Ist and some inroads made upon it, for one can never resist taking one or two : so it is a Clouded-yellow Year at Beccles, where a good series of Cerura furcula has emerged from ova taken on willow in my garden this year, when have been captured Interjecta, Fissipuncta, Festuca, Luteata, Albicillata and Procris statices' (E. T . GOLDSMITH). Edusa was in a Rougham-road garden at Bury (MR. D. THOMSON, in lit. 8 Sept.) and a poor

male at Barking (GBTN), on 31st. One seen by the River Deben at Kyson Hill in Woodbridge on 2 Sept. (Miss AKESTER, 1 9 Dales-view-road, Ipswich) ; one upon Melton golf-links and one in Christchurch-park at Ipswich during the past week ( M R . K . BANTOFT, in lit. 3 Sept.); and several 3 J at Needham Market, already battered by 3 Sept. (PLATTEN). On 3rd seven were in a clover-Aeld at Cavendish, 'the onlyones seen there,where I have kept Observation for many years' ( M R . J. NORMAN DATHORT, Manor-cottage there). Three in lucerne-Aeld at Letheringham (Miss CLOUGH, The Lodge there); one at Kilnfarm in Rickinghall (LONGSHAW) ; and a 2 at Barking ( G B T N ) , on 4th. Two at Bentley Woods on 7th (GBTN), when were none for twenty miles between Blythbro Wood and Monks Soham, where on 9th appeared my Arst female (MORLEY). A considerable immigration has reached south and SE. England; we are too far north for migrants here, and I have seen only two Edusa (F. W. FROHAWK, Galloway; 18 Sept.) In early September one can well imagine ' how galling it was to see a beautiful Clouded Yellow Ait past, under ones very nose, while I was engaged in physical training at Yarmouth, clad in less than enough to contain a pillbox, and so unable to retain the

266

OBSERVATION^.

Butterfly even if I had managed its capture ' (CHIPPERFIELD).

A specimen of var. Heiice, Box Hill on 20th, laid eggs for DR. BLAIR ; and more C. Edusa were seen at Ullswater in Westmorland on 2Ist, and Hadrians Camp in Cumberland on 26 Sept. by MR. SIMPSON. Belated records show singles at Martlesham on 16, Hemley on 23 (WALLER), Cattawade on 28 August and Valley-road in Ipswich on 21 Sept. (RACHEL M.

KING).

A N (PESCAPED) Papilio Machaon, LINN.—Three weeks ago to-day [13 August 1941] a magnificent Swallow-tail Butterfly appeared in our garden here. It was seen by my wife, myself, gardener and mother on two occasions.—G. KEIGHLEY BANTOFT, B.A., 53 Westerfeld Road, Ipswich; 3 Sept.

Miss Rider Haggard, in EDaily Press of 1 Sept., reports a recently emerged Machaon on Buddleia-flower, presumably in her garden at Ditchingham, close to Bungay.—J. L. MOORE. Machaon CATTERPILLAR'S SENSITIVITY.—When glancing on 11 August last over some pupated and pupating Swallow-tails brought home from the Norfolk Broads a fortnight before, my attention was arrested by strong muscular jerks that one bunched and spun but not yet turned larva persisted in making about every second, as though annoyed by ichneumonidous attack.

A lens showed the presence of a diminutive larval Aphis, Siphocoryne pastinacece, L., that was hurriedly Walking across the back of its third segment, which ambulation evidently tickled enough to cause the ' daily dozen ' irritation. A paintbrush at once removed the intruder, who had come from the now stale Common Carrot food on which the caterpillar had quite willingly concluded its diet.—R. A. MORLEY. [Has any Member aught to report upon those Machaon that were laid down at Fritton in Suffolk during August 1936 (Proc. iii, p. cix) ?—Ed.] W H I T E S ATTACKED BY A N T AND BIRD.—A small red Ant, Myrmica rubra, Ltr., was found to be attached by its mandibles to the underside of thorax of Pieris rapa, L., whose struggles attracted my attention at dusk in a gravel-pit at Walpole on 1 August last and which, after being liberated, seemed no worse for the attack, as the next morning it was still there and Aying normally about, identified by a certain chip out of its wing. T h e next day in an adjacent garden I saw a Spotted Flycatcher Muscicapa striata, Pall., swoop at and snap a hind wing off the same kind of White Butterfly, which was so little incommoded by the process that it continued its flight.—P. J. BURTON, Lowestoft; v.v. 3 Aug. [The former White had doubtless retired for the night before the Ant could have come at it and, even so, is usually too wary to allow such liberties. T h e latter is among the Flycatcher's usual diet: we observed a parallel case at Monks

OBSERVATIONS.

267

Soham on 15 July last. " Food : Insects, chiefly flies but also gnats and midges, butterflies, moths and the like, it dismembers the larger forms," say Kirkman & Jourdain in their 1930 ' British Birds.'—Ed.] HIGH-SUFFOLK BUTTERFLIES IN 1 9 4 0 . — T h e hedges about Stonham are being very much cut this spring, which seems a pity, for last year they were a mass of Blackthorn and Hawthorn blossem. I enclose a list of dates and Butterflies then noted on them : 24 March Rhamni ; 25 Urtica and Io ; 26 April Argiolus ; 17 May Megara and Pamphilus ; 2 June Phloeas and Janira ; 18 Rubi; 25 Hyperanthus and Atalanta; 26 W-album; 14 July Rhamni, Icarus and a fine speeimen of Cardui on a hedge in Stonham Parva near a Mangold-clamp.—E. FOWLER ; 5 March.

CORNISH RHOPALOCERA, &C.—The twenty-five Butterfly-species observed around St. Austell during last August afford some interesting comparisons with Suffolk ones. The majority were common, though in less numbers than is usual there then, owing to a succession of showery SW. gales, leaving only three entirely fine days. Several worn Paphia persisted in the hanging woods, and only two C-album and two Polychloros were noted ; Cardui was common and fine. /Egeria did not abound, nor Semele on hillsides ; Hyperanthus was scarce and local; but Tithonus profuse in lanes, the $ $ Variation with extra forewing spots occurred in about 40% of those seen, and the plum was a superb $ of the form Pallidus, Frohk. Several Rhamni and Argiolus appeared, with abundant Icarus. A single Hyale flew past me, among dozens of Edusa on clover, among which some females had the black border unusually broad ; and one var. Heiice was caught. Insects of other Orders were all scarce.— MELVILLE HOCKEN, 14 Sept. [The best of the latter brought home by Dr. Hocken from near St. Austell were :—Syromastes marginatus, L. ; Silpha tristis, III.; Phyllotreta consobrina, Ct.; Echinomyia grossa et fera, L . ; Eristalis rupium, F a b . ; Crabro albilabris, Fab. ; two $ Ccelichneumon periscelis, Wsm.; Astiphrommus mandibularis, T h . and Adelura sylvia, Hai.—CM.] SUFFOLK'S 1515th MOTH.—Account just appeared in T h e Entomologist (lxxiv, 171) of a descent by trespassers upon our (un)preserves at Brandon for a fortnight in May-June 1939 ; but it is obvious they did not know the Breck District and needed a guiding hand, for little execution was effected with even the most brilliant lamps. The two points of interest are (1) Meliana flammea, Ct., of which no Member has yet traced Meyrick's record to its origin (Memoir SNS. 1937, 41), was confirmed by its capture on both 28th and 5 t h ; and (2) a Pyraustid NEW to Suffolk, Phlycteenia cilialis, Hb., was secured in a southwest wind on 5th June. T h e latter, like all the other Cambs

268

OBSERVATIONS.

fen-species, was almost sure to occur along the marshes of our rivers running from the Wash and only lack of resident collectors on the Little Ouse, Lark or Kennet streams can account for previous ignorance of it here. ' The enormous number of at least five thousand ' Tyria jacobace came to the lamps : hardly comparable with the 120,000 chrysalides from the Breck (Trans, i, 73) collected in 1929 !—Ed. T I N E I D N E W TO SUFFOLK (Mem. i, 201).—Stainton's " projecting tooth of dark fuscous scales " is most distinctive of Phaulernis (Meyk. = /Echmia, Stn. nec Zell.) dentella, Zell, and Stn., which he records in 1859 from only Cambridge commonly, Sanderstead and Chudleigh, in May and June. He did not know the larvae, which Cruttwell adds in MS. ' feed on seeds of Chaerophyllum at Kilverstone,' miles east of Thetford in Norfolk. Merrin in 1875 knew them in July, also on seeds of Angelica sylvestris; and, T u t t adds in Hints, of C. temulum, L. Meyrick gives this as a local moth with a ränge from Devon through Dorset and Wiks to Surrey, and in Norfolk; the larvte he describes amongst seeds of Chserophyllum, Pimpinella, /Egopodium, &c., in both July and August. In the Epermeniidas, Phaulernis is known from other British genera by its short and depressed palpi, and the above tooth of scales. The pale markings of the front wings' inner margin are very pronounced when the imago is freshly emerged and, in a sitting posture, quite conspicuous. I took imagines in some profusion, always resting upon flowers of Chervil Chcerophyllum sylvestre, Hoff., where they are very sluggish and easily boxed, in my orchard at Waldringfield during 10-20 June 1940. No Hymenopterous parasite is yet recorded.— (Canon) A. P. WALLER ; Feb. 1941.

SUFFOLK T I N E I D S . — T h e 463 recorded Suffolk species of Tineina are so easily extended by anyone with eyes to see that quite casually I beat several larval cases of Coleophora Ahenella, Hein, (NEW to Suffolk) from a Rhamnus frangula bush in Shipmeadow marshes of the Waveney on 6 June.—CLAUDE MORLEY.

One of the late Bishop Whittingham's last confirmations as Suffolcian was Phthorimaa leucomelanella, Zell., of which he bred a single specimen from Silene maritima at Shingle-street in Hollesley. I see in our Society's 1937 ' M e m o i r ' no mention is made at page 171 of any record, excepting that Meyrick quotes it as ' Suffolk.' Altogether the Bishop must have made some fifty additions to our Microlepidoptera list.—CANON A. PWALLER, 9 July. [It should abound at Dunwich, where Sea Campion grows in the utmost profusion.—Ed.] Leucoptera Wailesella, »upra, page 242.

Stn.,

confirmed.—Cf.

Dyers-weed

OBSERVATIONS.

269

N O R T H SUFFOLK MOTHS.—1941 has been a very poor year in my experience, especially in Micros of which I took a series of Lithocolletis hortella on oak-trunks in Hoxne on 10 May, with profuse Heliozela sericiella at Billingford Wood in Norfolk.

Ornix anglicella was on grasses at Lowestoft golf-course in June [and one on Monks Soham window on 17 August.—Ed.], with Caradrina subtusa and Mysticoptera sexalisata at rest on willow ; one of the last Geometer was also netted on 22 June at Oaklcy, where larvse ofEarias chlorana (supra, p. 193) were again abundant in terminal shoots of Osiers on 17 August, though more backward than last year whose lot emerged well indoors between 12 May and 6 June, when no imagines whatever were discoverable by day or at dusk in their Osier-carr here. Spring was very cold and Polia areola still on the wing as late as 31 May at Lowestoft, where three Cucullia chamomillce occurred on 29 April. Nonagria geminipuncta pupae were numerous in Reeds at Oulton Broad during August; they emerged from 25th up to mid-September. Larvas of Orthosia Iota, that also emerged in mid-September, were found on Lowestoft golf-course with Palimpsestis 8-gesima, which were very conspicuous in early August at Mildenhall on new-cut Poplars' bushy shoots ; one cripple had emerged indoors this year on 22 February. I was sorry to find no opportunity of searching for Hyponomeuta irrorella this year.—JACK GODDARD ; 3 Oct. CLEAR-WINGED MOTHS.—By following up my capture at Holton last year (Trans, iv, 207 ) I was able to extract from oakstumps there a goodly number of /Egeria vespiformis larvas, the majority of which died as is only too usually the case ; but a certain proportion of imagines emerged in the course of June this year.—P. J. BURTON, 6 July.

I have been rounding up a few Clearwings during the last fortnight, and have taken seven JE. ichneumoniformis and seven ^E. myopiformis at Rowlands Castle near Portsmouth.—FRANK

STANLEY, 8 July.

M. myopiformis continues to occur in my Needham Market garden, but I have seen only four or five specimens this y e a r ; JE. tipuliformis, however, is common there. /E. formiciformis occurs at Creeting Mary.—E. W. PLATTEN, 7 July.

Just the other day a specimen of IE. tipuliformis was sitting on one of my flowers in the middle of Haiesworth, obviously from over the garden-wall where my next-door neighbour ha& currant-bushes.—DR. MELVILLE HOCKEN, 1 0 July.

All species of /Egeria seem horribly scarce in Suffolk: even ^E. tipuliformis I have never seen here yet. So I was the more pleased to take a pair of JE. formiciformis, Esp. (netted by our Hon. Secretary, as I failed to box them), in a severely circumscribed Osier-bed, now surrounded by meadows, at Oakley bridge by the

270

OBSERVATIONS.

Waveney on 22 June last, about 3.30 p.m. No others were then apparent to our dosest scrutiny; but the next morning a füll series in fine condition occurred to me, and I should think anyone wanting the species would have no difficulty in finding it "there at that time of year. None were present on either 3 or 7 July, when it seemed quite over. Why do South and L. W. Newman's 1913 Text Book put emergence in JulyAugust ? I thought the latter reliable, but in future shall pin faith on Meyrick who corrects it to June.—JACK GODDARD, Lowestoft; 8 July . [Here the herbage was very lush: Meadowsweet, Angelica, yellow and purple Vetches among Osier-stumps, over which one stumbles, under six-foot Eupatorium cannabinum and Thalictrum flavum. Whatever the season be, this Clearwing seems confined to the last week of June : all the Brandon ones occurred on 22nd in 1928, others on 24th at the New Forest in 1940 and 1 July at Horning in 1924.—Ed.] A large yellow Insect flew rapidly past me, along the arid northwest edge of Raydon Great Wood and of the East Suffolk county boundary, about two p.m. on 13 July; and I thought: ' Too late in year for a female Hörnet to be about even this year, surely.' So I turned to follow and quite close found it, even on the wing obviously too pale yellow for a tawny Vespa crabro, hovering at a bloomless Rose-bush. Its bright flavous collar showed it, in the net, to be Trochilium crabroniforme, Lew. : a rather worn and probably ovipositing female. But, though Aspen was plentiful, neither Sallow nor Poplar was anywhere near the spot. Many borings in Black Poplars are now apparent on both north and south sides of Buckenham Ferry, Norfolk, where Mr. Doughty took a series of T. apiforme, Clk., in mid-June 1917 and 1920.

W A N T E D : BATS' FLEAS.—Of the first 38 species of British Fleas, ectoparasitic on Birds or Mammals, Suffolk is known to possess at least 20 ; but of the last 7 British kinds, all of which prey upon Bats, we can at present record none. They are quite surely present in great numbers, especially in such harbourage as Mr. Burton describes below. Simply, no one bothered to look for them. Fleas from Bats will be very gratefully received by CLAUDE MORLEY, Monks Soham, Framlingham.

E I G H T FLIES N E W TO SUFFOLK.—Of the genus Simulium six kinds of Sand-flies are recorded from our County (Trans. Norf.

Nat. Soc. 1915, Suppl. pp. 16 & 180), of which S. nanum, Zett is now called S. argyreatum, Mg. and S. nigrum, Mg., is corrected to S. Austeni, Edw., at EMM. 1915, p. 308, where are added two species :—S. morsitans, Edw., from Fakenham m Suffolk and S. angustipes, Edw., from Barton Mills in Suttolk.

These two should have been brought forward at our Trans, u, p. 38, next before Chironomidae.—Mr. Wainwright gives the

OBSERVATIONS.

271

following records of Tachinidae in a review of that family in Trans. Ent. Soc. 1940, pp. 411-33 -.—Peleteria nigricornis, Mg., is the correct name for Fabriciella ferox (Trans. SNS. iv, 79).

Ernestia consobrina, Mg., common near Thetford in August 1938. Ernestia conjugata, Zett., a pair taken at Culford in 1911 by Col. Nurse and recorded in Trans. Ent. Soc. 1928 as Eurythia cassia, Fall.

Erynnia nitida, R-Desv., abundant at Barton Mills in 1923, on 3 September 1937 and at Tuddenham on 23 August 1937. Hypochaeta inepta, Mg., in some abundance at Barton Mills in late June 1939. Trichoparia blanda, Fall., nine females at Chillesford decoy near Orford in August 1937.— Also we must add to Trans. SNS. ii, 37, the Mycetophilid Docosia Moravica, Landr., taken new to Britain (EMM. 1941, 72) at Barton Mills in early summer ; and, to both Norfolk (Tr. Norf. Nat. Soc. 1915, Dipt. Suppl. p. 134) and Suffolk, Hydromyza livens, Fab., found by me at S. Walsham and, this year, on the Ouse at Knettishall in August.

A SPIDERS-WEB FLY.—The small Empid Microphorus holosericeus, Mg. (= vetulinus, Mcq.), is an inconspicuous black Fly of the most indolent habits. It seems frequent everywhere, and I have it from Somerset, Brandon staunch, Monks Soham windows and fly-trap in garden, on dates ranging from 31 May to 28 August. In 1908 I found it preying upon both sexes of dead Cricotopus tricinctus, Mg. (teste Austen) in spiders-webs ; in 1920 a female was sucking the nape of a male Ocydromia glabricula, Fln. on a window-pane ; and in 1941 others were sucking both Tipula and Chironomus spp. that were (doubtless freshly) dead in spiders-webs. They certainly extract the juices of other Flies, when found newly dead, unconnected with webs, though much more frequently those enmeshed in webs ; and are most often observed when hovering, with pendant but inconspicuously short hind legs, close to such spiders-webs, upon which they almost habitually alight and whose viscid matter, when no other Flies whatever are present, they appear to imbibe with relish. No other Dipteron is ever present in such a Situation, where this species was noticed to hover in a score together upon several occasions in my garden last mid-June. Collin, though he has found it to be not uncommon in Mr. Verrall's Newmarket garden, says (EMM. 1926, p. 214) nothing respecting its frequency or habits.—At 6 p.m. on the brilliant 6 July last a 3 Empis lutea, Mg., was clinging by four front legs to the outside of a windowpane at Monks Soham and clasping in the hind pair a male M. holosericeus, into which it at first thrust its proboscis below the chin ; but, after several short flights of a half-inch and resettling, it clung to the pane by only the two front legs and rolled its prey round with its four hind ones before thrusting its beak into the favourite neck-nape, whence it continued to finish its repast, under my lens within the room.

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S E V E N Medeteri N E W T O S U F F O L K . — F u l l y a half-dozen additional species (to the six kinds of Dolichopodidae recorded at our Trans, ii, p. 42) are brought forward as Suffolcian by Mr. Collm of Newmarket's revision of the genus Medeterus in Bntain (EMM. 1941, pp. 148-53). These are M. nitidus, Mcq., taken at Ampton by the late Col. Charles Nurse; M. pinicola, Kow. and M. ambiguus, Zett., both on Scots Pine at Newmarket on 16 June 1940 by Mr. Collin ; M. incrassatus, Frey, on a Walnuttrunk in Mr. Verrall's old garden at Sussex Lodge in Newmarket in May 1920 ; M. apicalis, Zett., ' Suffolk' only; M. jugalis, and M. impiger, Collin, both new to Science: the former taken at Barton Mills in July by Verrall, and the latter from ' Suffolk, probably bred from Larch. I have found M. micaceus, Lw., in Staverton Thicks on 19 June 1919; M. muralis, Mg., to be abundant at Monks Soham in J u n e ; and M. jaculus, Mg., at Cromer in Norfolk during September 1926.

E A R L Y H A B I T S O F Platypeza.—One glorious summer's morning, before our late Treasurer Elliott had vacated his pillow at the White Hart (I am astonished to find it as long ago as 8 August 1913), I was moved by an unwonted burst of energy to rise early and explore the marshy intricacies of the Brandon staunchwood. About 7.30 a.m., I came upon some small Boleti growing from the stump of a dead Sallow-bush that overhung about a foot above the water of a dyke ; and upon both upper and under sides of these fungi were quiescently sitting the beautiful little Fly Platypeza infumata, Hai., in such numbers that I tubed a series of both sexes. Of this I have just been reminded when as a first birthday present, a male of P. dorsalis, Mg., was secured Walking on my Monks Soham bedroom window at 8 a.m. on 22 June, the first ever seen here, where the sole previous species has been P. furcata, Fall., in the garden on 6 June 1925 and front gates on 29 May 1928. Actually P. dorsalis IS probably the most generally distributed British kind, though commoner later in the year (cf. E M M . 1901, p. 281 and 1903, p. 173, &c).

A H O V E R E R T H A T H I B E R N A T E S . — I t is well known that the species tenax and pertinax of the genus Eristalis habitually hibernate: Verrall forty years ago suspected the latter of doing so and had seen the former in mid-February. I was once dehghted to find a half dozen E. cmeus hibernating gregariously in the crown of an old steel helmet inside Erwarton church, near the mouth of the Stour, in November. But I can discover no repord ot E. sepulchralis, Dab., passing the winter in the perfect State, so I was surprised to observe a female sitting still rather torpidly in a Monks Soham bedroom, obviously just aroused from behind some picture by the warmth of spring sunshine, on 25 April last.

This species' supposititious association with manure seems unwarranted, for it has frequently occurred on water-lilies in the

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adjacent garden moat and at Bradwell doles in J u n e ; Southwold salt-marshes during July to late September; Bamby Broad and the New Forest in August; at Horning and Surlingham in Norfolk, Boston in Lines and Glastonbury in Somerset. This year it appeared on 1 September ; but, curiously, I have no note of it in either May or October. It is the Musca interpuneta of dear old Moses Harris' 1782 ' Exposition of English Insects,' pl. xv, fig. 13.

A S P L I T F L Y . â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A ' new ' kind of Hovering-fly has been added to the Suffolk list by M r . J. E. Collin of Newmarket's consideration that its almost bare antennal arista constitutes specific rank apart from the ubiquitous Eristalis pertinax, Scop.

This new form, E. abusivus, is brought forward by him at E M M .

1931, p. 180; and at loc. cit. 1941, p. 131, M r . R. L. Coe shows its British distribution, including Barton Mills in Suffolk, to be hardly less extensive than that of the species whence it has been split. One may well doubt if such obscure differences be not purely developmental.

HOVERER-FLY N E W TO SUFFOLK.â&#x20AC;&#x201D;While fossicking beside a bog of the Deben River at Brandeston about noon on 17 July last, I met with an awkward predicament: I had thrown one leg across a loose-rail style when my eye focused an undoubted Sphegina clunipes, Fall., hovering at a Hogweed flower just beyond it. Instant action was indicated. So I slued across the other leg and, by acrobatic contortion, simultaneously Struck at the fly which in the net proved to be a fine female of 7 mm. When the wings are folded it is hard to teil from the ubiquitous Syritta pipiens, L., but in flight the attenuated waist is conspicuously narrow. In this case recognition was easy from my previous captures in the New Forest on sunny CEnanthe flowers in June 1932-40 at Matley Bog, hovering at bushes in Orton Wood near Carlisle in early July 1937 and at Killarney in mid-June 1913.

It is nowhere common, though also known in Devon, Dorset, Sussex, Kent, Norfolk, Hereford, Glos., Warwick, Westmorland, Inverness and Wales.

Of its life-history we appear still ignorant; but almost doubtless its larva subsists, like that of the allied genus Baccha (EMM. 1896, 156), upon Aphides.

On another flower of Heracleum at Brandeston occurred the Tachinid Fly Myiocera carinifrons, Fall., NEW to Suffolk, a species always common in the New Forest throughout July.

Exigent circumstances pinned me at home this summer, the first here since our Society's foundation; so I was at hand to notice a dozen of the rare Tachinid Fly Mintho rufiventris, Fall. (Trans, supra, p. 79), that flew in at three windows of Monks Soham House between 5-21 J u l y ; a male was there on 11 Sept. 1940.

It is a very confiding bestiola (as John Ray would term it), by no means nervous but Aying freely about the room with as little

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attention to windows as Musca domestica, L. Its behaviour most resembles that of Prosena sybarita : Standing and Walking very high on its long legs, with head elevated and wings held horizontally in a broad > from thorax; it is nimble to a remarkable degree, fairy-light on its feet, and given to waving the long front legs like feelers in the way that do Sciomyzids.

All came in between noon and 6 p.m., mostly about five ; though as yet I have seen but one out of doors here basking in the sun a foot from the ground on an Eider leaf, alongside Pollenia rudis, at 10 a.m. in a slight south-west breeze on 24 July.—CLAUDE MORLEY.

Elachyptera cornuta, F L N . , B R E D . — I send you five little live Flies that have emerged in my breeding-cage from a stem of Typha latifolia from Blythburgh Wood along with the Moth Nonagria sparganii, whose pupa appears quite normal with the usual emergence-hole and in no way parasitised; the imago also is in perfect condition. Hence I suppose that the Flies, though associated, are unconnected with the Moth.—P. J. BURTON, Lowestoft; 21 Sept. [Evidently the larvas of both Fly and Moth had been living in the pith of the Reed in independent Community. T h e former is a very distinct species in which we have been much interested since Verrall naraed it as above for us in 1895. It is everywhere profuse in marshes and we have found it everymonth except August and November to January at Dalkey near Dublin, Epping Forest, Norfolk, Skegness and Mablethrop in Lines, and near York ; in Suffolk at Timworth and Ampton (Col. Nurse), Brandon, Mildenhall, Barton Mills, E. Bergholt, Bentley Woods, Ipswich, Foxhall, Dunwich, Blythburgh Wood, Wangford, S. Cove, Covehithe Broad, &c. Abroad it has been previously bred, cf. Blair, E M M . 1932, 12.—Ed.] A RARE SAW-FLY.—Mr. Doughty was prone to dub Sawflies as dull old things, whose larvas give one all the trouble of Moths| caterpillars to rear, with none of the joy derivable from Moths beauty ; but some kinds are exceptions to this general drabness, being of distingue aspect and scarce occurrence. We were watching the restive movements of a Lackey-moth's quite young larval nest on Hawthorn at 6.15 p.m. on 14 June last in my Monks Soham plantation when a Saw-fly flew at five feet high against the soft west breeze across a tarred road and came to rest on the same hedge, in which is mixed a good deal of both Privet and Ash but no Oak. I was astonished to find the insect to be Macrophya punctalbum, L., never seen here before through forty years' residence, nor taken alive by me elsewhere. And, yet curiouser, another was captured at 2 p.m. on 16th Aying at P r ^ e t in Tuddenham Fen, thirty miles away. Morice believed that he had always found it on Privet (EMM. 1911, 106) in the south of England, whence Cameron records it from only Devon,

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Dorset, near Dover and round London ; Bridgman captured it on Privet at Norwich (Phyt. Hym. i, 138) and named one specimen, hitherto unique in Suffolk, sent him by Mr. W. H. Tuck from Tostock near Bury in 1892 during ' September,' a month when it is never on the wing. It occurs as far north as Notts (one specimen: Carr) and even Scotland (Dr. Sharp); in 1900 our Member, Miss Chawner, kindly sent me two from her Lyndhurst garden in the New Forest and, I think about the same period, M r . James Edwards gave me one from Colesbourn in Glos.; but I have never yet seen the male, which resembles that of M. rubi, Sehr., a species alleged to feed on Ribis ; this one subsists on Ligustrum vulgare and, abroad where it extends from Scandinavia to Italy Over west Europe, on the closely allied Fraxinus excelsior.—CLAUDE M O R L E Y .

T H E TABLES TURNED.—The enclosed black Digger-wasp with black-barred wings, which at first I mistook for a large Ant, was observed by Luce Bay at Bargrennon in Galloway on 23 August dragging along the accompanying Spider, in whose abdomen its jaws were embedded. T h e latter was hauled across the entire width of a footpath and then up the side of a block of timber, in which doubtless was the Fossor's nest. There I secured both speeimens, despite the extreme activity of the former which seemed about to provision its already-prepared nest with the paralized Spider.—F. W. FROHAWK. [The Fossor is Agenia variegata, L., ? , much more frequent in north than south Britain, though extending to I. Wight, common in Welsh mountains and quite unknown in Suffolk. Dr. Hull identifies the Spider as the fairly common Xysticus audax, Sehr, (supra, p. 158).—Ed.] SOTFOLK'S 2257th HYMENOPTERON.—Yellow Loosestrife, Lysimachia vulgaris, L., though certainly rarer here than a halfcentury ago, still grows at Blakenham locks, at Brandon, Tuddenham Fen, &c., and profusely in marshes about Wade Hall in North Cove. Nowhere but when extracting pollen from its flowers is seen, as far as I am aware, the very local Bee Macropis labiata, Fab., hitherto known from only four British counties (cf. Trans, iii, 84). M r . Jim Burton and I were wading through waist-high herbage beside the Ouse River at Knettishall on 3 August last, when we met with a few small beds of this Loosestrife that were not yet fully flowered ; so, with Macropis in mind, we stood to watch their visitants. Not two minutes elapsed before a Bee flashed by which I, with passed experience of the species in New Forest and Norfolk Broads, easily recognised as the desired Insect. T o clinch the matter Mr. Burton swooped at the next specimen with his heavy sweep-net (I had been beating and was netless) and missed it, but secured the following one, a male. T h e flowers were sparse, but in a quarter-hour we

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saw quite half a dozen of the Bee, which is now known in fixe counties. [The four cocoons described above (page 213) have been examined and recognised by our Member, Dr. Blair, as pertaining to the Wild Bee-genus Osmia, and pretty surely to Osmia rufa; their association with Hive Bees appears novel and its nature is obscure.—Ed.] TAINTED HONEY.—I was much interested to find, when recently re-perusing Thomas More's ' Lalla Rookh' (14th ed. 1828, p. 163), that the tainted Rhododendron-honey, that Lord Cranbrook referred to (Proc. iii, page clix), has been notorious for a very long time in India. Here the ' Sacred Book' is perverted to " H i s creed of lust and hate and crime— E v ' n as those Bees of T r e b i z o n d Which, f r o m the sunniest flowers that glad W i t h their pure smile the gardens round, D r a w venom forth that drives men m a d , "

based upon Tournefort's even earlier assertion that ' There is a kind of Rhododendros about Trebizond, whose flowers the Bee feeds upon, and the Honey thence drives people mad.' I have perfectly typical Apis mellifica, L., from India ; but is this the kind of Honey Bee in question ?

RUBY-TAILED WASP NEW TO SUFFOLK.—In bright sunshine, after the heavy rain the previous day, at noon on 23 August last, I came across an entirely metallic blue, corpulent and comparatively large Chrysidida; that was rapidly running up and down numerous adjacent stems near the heads of Osier (Salix viminalis, L.), which I was examining for spun larvas of Earias chlorana, L., that were not present, in the Waveney marshes at Shipmeadow.

The ccerulean gern refused to fly at all, but kept dodging among the stems at such a pace that capture with net or fingers was impossible : may he propagate lustily ! Though lost to sight, I have no shadow of doubt the insect is Ellampus violaceus, Scop., which I know well as a New Forest species : for no other British kind of the family (all of which I possess but H. coriaceum, H. rutilans and C. hirsuta) of that size is totally blue, excepting only El. truncatus, Dhlb. (EMM. 1900). Of the last the late Mr. Beaumont gave me several, which he bred on 20 June 1897 from Fossors' borings in dead Apple-wood in his suburban garden at Blackheath in Kent so Truncatus, apart from its great rarity, is most unlikely to be our marsh insect.

A DIFFICULT ICHNEUMON.—The species of the genus Ccelichneumon are so variable in colour individually, and closely alhed inter se, that it is good to gather obviously co-specific males.

These a kind southerly wind of fortune blew into my house last June : two flew in to the hall windows on 17th and a dozen

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more during 18th-30th. They exactly fit the description of C. bilineatus, Gmel. (NEW to Suffolk), of my British Ichneumons 1903, p. 30 and I find they nearly always have the front legs internally rufescent, as regards the femora and tibiae or only the latter : in but two cases are all six femora mainly red. Bridgman regarded this insect as a common parasite of the Currant Moth in Norfolk, which can hardly be the case because it is the sole Ccelichneumon upon which I have gathered no data since 1903 (nor can the British Museum furnish any : see my Revis. lehn, iv, 121), when I find the Notts record to be correct, but am still quite unable to confirm that bred in Devon by Bignell from the Noctuid-moth Bryophila muralis, Fst. (whence the closely allied C. consimilis, Wsm., is very frequently raised) or that bred

by Elisha from Drymonia trimacula, Esp. (dodonea); both of which parasites were named by Bridgman (Entom. xiii, 67 and xvi, 64). Currant Moths are numerous on Blackthorn in my paddock here, and I hope to determine the question ere long : at present I suspect him of mistaking its well-known parasite Stenichneumon trilineatus, Gmel., for the present species. The former, two males of which were wafted into my house with the above, is easily differentiated by its finer sculpture, smaller size and pale scutellar keels.

W A N T E D : A HOST.â&#x20AC;&#x201D;There is an aristoeratie parasitic fly, exclusive in both his dress suit of pure black and white, and his rarity of the dozen known British speeimens, for which no victim has ever been recorded : doubtless his dietary is equally delicious. The species allied to this Ichneumon lugens, Grav., have been bred from both Butterflies and such stout-bodied Moths as the genus Nonagria that feeds mainly on grasses and reeds, never on birch, so his known hibernacula seem no guide to the answer. Only solitary speeimens have been noticed in Shropshire before 1829 (Grav.), near London before 1835 (Stephens), in Bridgman's Norwich collection, Devon in June about 1898 (Bignell), I have females from Chitty's and in 1905 Willoughby Ellis' collections, and Mr. H. L. Orr of Belfast took another hibernating under loose bark of a Birch-tree in Carrs Glen at foot of Cave Hill in Co. Antrim on 24 Feb. 1912 (EMM. 1912, 91). It is not included in our Member, Dr. Haines' list of Hants Ichneumons (Tr. S. Engl. Ent. Soc. 1931, 6), but I record one in the New Forest there (EMM. 1935). And a female was discovered ' hibernating and semitorpid under quite damp bark, covered with wet Moss, of an old Birch-stump at Bargrennan in Galloway, Scotland, on 17 Nov. 1940' by Mr. F. W. Frohawk, who remarks (in lit. 10.8.41) upon the conspieuity in life of the ivory-white scutellum and antennal band compared with its black body.

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ROSE-GALL ICHNEUMONS.—My attention was arrested on 7 June last by the presence of Orthopelma luteolator, Grav., as their wings glittcred in the sun on a dull and brown last-year s gall of Rhodites rosce, L „ on wild rose in my Monks Soham paddock.

This is a well-known parasite on the Gall-fly and both sexes emerge from each brood over a space of some fourteen days, which fact suggests that these, all males, were awaiting the advent of their prospective brides from the gall. At first I guessed a case of ' assembling,' but no females were present to do so.

Numerous instances are recorded of males, in vanous Orders ot Insects, awaiting and even assisting the emergence of the lemale of the species, preparatory to paying her their attentions. In the present case ten were restlessly strolling over the gall s surface and tapping it with their antennal tips at 3 p.m.

(Greenwich time, always) ; and an hour later, with no sun eieht were still doing so though less actively. Nees tound males only of the Pimplid Ichneumon Stilbops chrysostoma Gr dancing gregariously in the air like Chironomid gnats round lime-trees; but I recall no instance upon record of Cryptids thus ' attending the female.'—CLAUDE M O R L E Y .

Mi

Ol Ii

I C H N E U M O N NEW TO SUFFOLK, AND S A W F L I E S . - T h e first sunnv day for over a week of northerly wind was 16 September last, but the next day the latter came round to a more genial quarter and I used its bright sunshine to collect at Westhall.

There, inter alia, I found one specimen of the Ichneumon Mesoleius caligatus, Grav. (our Hon. Secretary teils me), NEW to our County List (Trans, iii, p. 159, after M. auhcus) With it in Westhall were single $ 2 of the Sawfhes Pteronus hortensis, Htg. and Emphytus braccatus Gmel., of which but one has previously been taken in Suffolk (I.e., pp. 21 and 26).— D R . M E L V I L L E H O C K E N , Haiesworth ; 2 3 Nov. PARASITES OF P U G M O T H S . — T h e enclosed two live Ichneumons have slain and just emerged from larvse of Eupitheaa pygmeeata Hb collected at Holton near Haiesworth. The former must be common there, for only three imagines of the latter sueeeeded in maturing out of about thirty larvas t a k e n . - P . J . B U R T O N , Lowestoff 24 Aug. [The Ichneumons are Omorga molesta, Gr T V (lehn. Brit. v, 147). The sole one hitherto known to attack this Geometer is the next species, O. submarginata, Bdg., in Cambs.; and that, too, was really most hkely O molesta. cf Trans iii, 225. Later a single $ Platylabus pactor Wsm. (lehn. Brit. i, 233), was bred by Mr. Burton from the same batch of larvse on 7 September; this Ichneumon, also has been r a i s e d o n t h e Continent from allied Eupithecias. And on he latter date he further bred out of E. assimilata, Dbld., Uie

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Braconid Rhogas testaceus, Spin. (Trans, iii, 237), which was first confirmed as a British insect by our late Member Mr. Henry Slater's rearing it in Somerset from E. coronata (Entom.

1916, p. 126).—Ed.] T H E D A Y ' S WORK.—Heat disturbed Morpheus' arms a halfhour after sunrise on 12 July last, so about 3.45 I sprang out of bed and threw open the window, admitting a waft of Honey suckle. Already the sun was brilliant, though my window at Monks Soham faces west; on it several Insects had been held prisoners through the night, all of which were now most active and promptly flew off strongly : mainly Muscid Diptera, and I especially noticed only the uncommon Cordylurid Cochliarium albipila, Zett. and Hymenopterous Chrysis ignita, L. The same evening, just before sunset and about 8.45, my wife called me from setting into the garden to watch a Red Admiral Butterfly seek shelter for the night among leaves of tall Ashes : examination showed it a female and hibernated, surely the last survivor from 1940 ! I recall no printed reference to the times of Insects' rising up and lying down: an eight-hours' day is accounted long enough for us, but what sluggards are we when compated with the seventeen thus employed by Insects ! In summer, nightflyers can make use of only the odd seven hours, excepting such exponents of ' perpetual motion' as have been accounted the Gamma Moths.—CLAUDE MORLEY.

THE EEL ON LAND.—When working about 10.30 on the warm and sunny morning of 7 June near the bank of my pond, I saw an Eel about ten inches long in the very long grass that was very wet after heavy rain on the previous night. It was about five yards from the water's edge ; examination showed no mark and that it was apparently uninjured in any way: when put into the water, it very strongly swam away. I am aware that Eels occasionally travel across land to get from enclosed water to other water; but have understood this was always done at night. In the present case there was no necessity to take to land, as a considerable and constant outflow communicates with 'a small stream.

I shall be interested to hear of similar experiences.—[THE H O N . ] BERNARD BARRINGTON ; Poplar Farm, Hollesley (Local Daily Paper, 2 3 June 1 9 4 1 ) . [Because usually nocturnal presumably, such observations seem rare and none is hitherto recorded in our Trans. Nor have I met with such an occurrance in Britain : an Anguilla vulgeris, Turt., that I kept from the size of a small penholder to fifteen inches in length and about J inch in girth in a glass tank at Southwold, never made the least attempt to leave the water, even on an exploratory expedition, though the top was open and both ends of the tank were level with adjoining flower-beds. It is well known, however, that they do leave water and cross damp grass or soil Ii

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at night between waters, as shown in Dr. Travis Jenkins 1925 ' Fishes Brit. Isles,' 267. Some years ago I spent the summer in Suez ; and early one morning, when I was out with a gun before 6 a.m. and in the usual brilliant sunshine, I walked along the banks of the Sweetwater canal which brings fresh water from the Nile near Cairo, via the land of Goshen, to Suez. Crossing the grass rapidly from the canal towards some reservoirs connected with the Suez water system were two long dark bodies, which 1 thought were snakes. So I gave them each a charge of shot and found, to my surprise, that they were large Eels, though of what species I do not know. Personally I believe Eels get on land to pick up food, as they are always hungry and will eat anvthine thev can tackle.—D.W.C.] ' A H ! KNOW YE THE LAND . . . ? '—In many ways Little Clacton in Essex is an especially good spot for Birds, Flowers and Butterflies. Its numerous woods hold the greatest treasures, from Willow Tits to an amazing number of White Admirals, with Woodcock, Goldcrests, Foxes and Adders just thrown in to give added interest. The marshes would be almost as thrilling if it were not for the fact that they invariably become flooded during every winter : however, this is more than compensated in spring when Shelduck, Little Grebes, Snipe, Reed Buntings and Meadow Pipits are all to be found breeding there. I should be very grateful if you could put me in touch with other Members whose tastes are similar to my own, especially keen Bird-watchers. I look forward with pleasure to attending some of the Society's Meetings.—Miss RITA MARGARET ROPER, T h e Street, Little Clacton; 18 Nov. 1941. [Will Members kindly respond ?—Ed.] LIZARD ON B O U L D E R - C L A Y . — T h e very fairly füll account of the distribution of Lacerta vivipara, Wagl., in Suffolk (Trans, ii, 212) shows only Mr. Cribb's record from Kettleburgh over all the great central Clay Plateau of the County : every other is from gravel and sand districts. Thence, and from the fact that for nearly forty years' residence I never met a specimen, its extreme rarity on Boulder-clay is fully attested. I had long come to regard it as absent from the Monks Soham fauna, so was delighted on 21 August last to see a tail-less specimen run through the tangled weeds beside ' the Lanes' here. The locality is a ramification of green-ways that have been fortunately repudiated by our CC. because the cottages (four shown by Faden's 1783 map) and Potash-farm, formerly connected by it, are become ruinous or swept away ; it runs for over 1 | miles from Broadway-farm to Southolt Green, a mud track that is pretty uniformly a dozen yards wide, deeply ditched laterally, with such hedges and trees as the local farmers deign to accord

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theflatlandscape ; characteristicfloraare Sallow, black Poplar, Willow, Angelica, Lythrum, Epilobium and other paludose kinds : ample cover but, one would suppose, of an uncongenial sort for ' sand ' Lizards.—CLAUDE MORLEY. AMID THE LAKES.—We have been at Coniston since early last June ; and I expect you know the country round here well [cf.

Trans. 1937, p. cliii]. I have tramped miles and made many Observations, but too simple to record ; the Trees, Flowers, Birds and mosses hold a great fascination for me. Magpies, Chaffinches, Tits and Robins abound, but I see few of my friendly Sparrows and suppose their dearth is caused by lack of fruittrees in these parts. I love to hear the Owls hooting at night, amid the hills Red Squirrels are everywhere, and some come to the back-door to be fed ! We are all well and, though it is so beautiful here and füll of interest, longing to get home to Southwold. The last Transactions brought back many happy memories of past Meetings. JANET PIPE, Gate House, Coniston, Lancs ; 28 April.—This is indeed a peaceful Valley and snow was lying on the hills down to 1200 feet until yesterday's rain, which leaves them speckled with white. There has been a long drought, the streams are trickles and Grassmere is low.

I walk over the felis and can go up Helvellyn. The birds here are strangely tarne : I know nothing of the sort in Suffolk [where folk are less sympathetic.—Ed.], If you sit down on the felis, Chaffinchs come and sit by you, and almost touch you ; it cannot all be hope of food from picknickers, because it is done out on the hills. A local lady teils me that they are attracted more by men than women : why is this ? Tits sit on the hand of one man, who carries nuts for birds ; I have never seen such a thing before. I have under Observation a pair of magnificent Buzzards (Buteo lagopus, Brün.) who do a mysterious dance in the air, a great Crested Grebe which appears to be nesting among the Lake-reeds, and numerous Flycatchers.

I thought the last Transactions singularly good, and studied them with interest. W. ROWLEY ELLISTON, Grandy Close, Grassmere, Westmorland ; 15 May. EFFECTS OF LATE SPRING.—About Bury St. Edmunds this year I heard several Nightingales in füll song on 18 June ; the latest I have heard such previously has been on 9 June, so doubtless this is another result of our late spring. But, on the other hand, this year I came across a Woodcock already sitting in February ; and, out of more than 140 nests noted by me since 1920, I have never seen a sitting hen before earlier than 22 March.—MR. FRANK BURRELL, Fornham St. Martin; 5 Aug. A WHITE BLACKBIRD.—I saw an albino Turdus merula, L., in Rhododendron bushes on the north side of Wilderness Pond ® Christchurch Park, Ipswich, to-day. It is entirely white,

282

OBSERVATIONS.

excepting the normally coloured tail-feathers. O n e of the parkkeepers had noticed this Bird in the Park for the past eight m o n t h s , s o m e t i m e s ' m o b b e d ' by its fellows. HAROLD R . LINGWOOD ; 10 M a r c h . — I watched a totally white Blackbird, with not a Single black feather but very pronounced yellow beak, near the R o u n d P o n d in Christ-church Park on 8 M a y ; it had a w a x y look. A passer-by told m e he had watched the same b i r d there in the spring of 1940 as well as in 1941.— ROWLEY ELLISTON.

O n e day last year we saw thousands of Starlings in a perfect circle, all apparently quite motionless, with their heads turned inwards, congregated on a large field in Saxmundham.—BRIDGET COPINGER H I L L ; 3 0 M a r c h

1941.

Pica caudata, FLEM., IN SUFFOLK.—I have seen no M a g p i e s since I heard s o m e chattering about two miles f r o m south R u s h m e r e in 1938 ( C . CHEVALLIER, in lit. 20 J u n e ) . T h e note at p a g e 219 s u p r a brought forth the surprising c o m m e n t from our L o c a l Secretary that they were becoming, if not already b e c o m e , too c o m m o n in the E y e district nowadays (LORD HENNIKER, in lit. 28 M a r c h ) . B u t there seems s o m e occult cause for their uneven distribution, for M i s s HARWOOD remarks on 30 M a r c h that " I have not seen a Single M a g p i e about H a d l e i g h , though we always had a great m a n y about E a s t Bergholt, which is no m o r e than five miles a w a y . " — B e c o m i n g increasingly f r e q u e n t about Haiesworth where were two on 22 J u l y : seen singly f r o m S t . Nicholas in E l m h a m on N . to D a r s h a m on S., Westhall on E . to Metfield on W . Pairs were observed in spring ; and in April we saw eight together at Bramfield, which flew off in different directions (DR. HOCKEN) ; Oakley on 2 2 May (GODDARD). Single examples have been noted this year Aying at D e b e n h a m on 14 M a y ; S a x s t e a d B o t t o m 30th ; Debenham water-lane 16 J u n e ; in Holton Park 10 J u l y ; M o n k s Soham g a r d e n at 6 a.m. on 11 J u l y and Cretingham marshes 19 A u g . ; parent with two f - g r o w n y o u n g at D e n h a m L a n e in Hoxne on 15 J u n e ; and three on edge of Priestly W o o d in Barking on 7 A u g . F e a t h e r s at Blythbro H e a t h on 5 Oct. " RARE BIRDS AT GREAT YARMOUTH."—I give a list of some of the most important that have been killed in this neighbourhood during the past severe winter :—six adult Bewick Swans, one S p o t t e d Shank, five White-fronted G e e s e , one Red-necked Phalarope, several Woodcock, nine adult Brent G e e s e , three Shell-ducks, eight B e a r d e d T i t s , three adult male S m e w s ; and one e a c h : — B i t t e r n , Little G u l l , M o n t a g u Harrier, Pectoral S a n d p i p e r , Fork-tailed Petrel and a fine adult male Buffons S k u a , of which I have secured the last three for m y own collection.

Also, one thousand D u n l i n s have been killed.—B. DEY, Yarmouth (Naturalists' Gazette, iii, 1891, M a y , p. 37).

OBSERVATIONS.

283

CORNCRAKES PERSIST (cf. supra, p. 97).—" T h e bird was a young bird of the year and was shot at The Chase in Nettlestead

by Mr. S. H . Füller, the Chase's owner, on 21 September last.

The party out shooting heard ' Snipe over,' another call ' Woodcock over,' and the bird in question feil to a gun, who was indeed sorry to find it a Corncrake . . . You may remember I recorded a nest of the species at Whitton about three seasons ago. I have flushed it in recent years at Woolverstone and Sproughton. It is a summer migrant, arriving about May and late April. If the watcher knows, by the creaking note, that the bird is near him, he can attract it much closer by rubbing his thumb-nail over the teeth of a fine comb," Mr. Herbert Drake of Ipswich, M.B.O.U., teils me. T h e Nettlestead youngster is in the taxidermist's hands, and will be on exhibition at Ipswich Museum.—H. R . LINGWOOD, in lit. 1 1 Nov.

RUDDY SHELD-DUCK, &C, AT BURY.—Unlike the Common Sheld-duck which spends most of its life near the sea, the Ruddy one chiefly frequents lakes, rivers and meres ; and a pair nested at Langmere near Thetford in 1905. This Duck is chiefly chestnut coloured with the head and neck creamy buff, separated from the ruddy body by a black ring encircling the lower part of the neck ; the jet black primaries and snow white wingcoverts show up conspicuously in flight. M y outstanding experience of 1940 was the Observation of a male of this Bird at the sugar-beet effluent near Bury St. Edmunds on 27 September, when he was very wild and I had great difficulty to approach at all closely. Again I saw one, upon the little piece of water called Mermaid Pits near the sugar-beet factory, on 30 October; this I was able to watch, for he stayed round about this Stretch of water tili 22 December. It may have escaped from some aviary, of course ; if not, it certainly came from the Continent, for it is found in most European countries. Although these Birds occur with us from time to time, their records are few and far between. [This is the first example of Tadorna ferruginea, Pall., to occur in our County since these Transactions began in 1929. About two dozen are known from Suffolk since 1864, excluding the phenomenal 1892 ijiflux which occasioned our own earliest ornithological jot (Science Gossip 1893, p. 20, overlooked by Dr. Ticehurst).—Ed.] In 1940, I first saw Stone Curlews near Tuddenham on 2 April; on 28th found two nests, each with two eggs, there ; and on 30th another: no eggs were taken.

Greater Spotted Woodpeckers seem quite common at Barton M a g n a ; and I have observed the Lesser upon one occasion. On 19 Sept. Swallows, among which were a few Martins and at least one Swift, were gathering in thousands over the above Mermaid Pits and effluent : so many as to render them a'most amazing sight. T h e last Swallow left on 3 November.

284

OBSERVATIONS.

Small parties of Redpolls were watched, eating Nettle-seeds just outside Bury on 17 December. At the Mermaid Pits last year I noted also, Mallard, Gadwell, Teal, Widgeon, Pochard, Shoveler and Tufted Duck ; the water is of small extent, surrounded

by Reeds, old Sedges and an abundance of Willow-trees.

D. S. STEBBINGS, Eastgate-street, Bury; 16 Feb. 1941.—On 11 May 1941 I visited Tuddenham Heath, without Mr. Stebbings who is called to the Colours, and found more Stone Curlews' nests, each containing a single egg. BERNARD TICKNER ; 29 May. " HE IS A GOOD SPORT."—This inhuman substantive is regrettably spreading. A Needham Market soi-disant ' sportsman ' recently shot a Great-crested Grebe, and then swore he had thought it a Duck ! Pity such folk are allowed a gun, isn't it ? The bird is not generally rare, I know ; but it is a very handsome fellow, and this is its first record from Needham.— E. W. PLATTEN, 21 July. [Enemies, not friends, should be shot.]

ANOTHER SUFFOLK Grus cinerea, BECH.—Of the three specimens alone recorded during the last Century from Suffolk by Ticehurst (Birds Suff. 322 ; cf. Trans. SNS. i, 146, &c.), one was shot at Benacre on 26 June 1893. " A very fine male Crane (Grus cinerea) has recently been shot on low-lying marshland at Benacre, Suffolk, as the E. Daily Press states a week ago. It was sent for preservation to Mr. Bunn of Lowestoft.—W. H. M. ANDREWS, Colney, Norwich, 14 Nov." (Naturalists' Journal magazine, ii, 1893, p. 87).

THETFORD BIRDS.—" Thetford possesses great attractions for students of Natural History ; within ten miles are huge tracts of heath and warren, large woods and plantations, marsh-land and rivers ; its varieties of country serve as habitat for most British inland species of Birds. The Norfolk Plover [CEdicnemus crepitans, Tem.] seems plentiful on Thetford Warren; I heard about twenty calling at one time on 11 May, their note being first short and indistinct and then immediately shrill and continued.

Several Ringed Plovers [/Egialitis hiaticula, L.] were busy nesting and, with Lapwings [Vanellus cristatus, Mey.], seemed greatly to resent my intrusion. Wild fowl on rivers are certainly increasing : I counted twenty-seven Coots [Fulica atra, L.] on the Little Ouse near two-mile-bottom on 19 Jan., saw a brood of six Moorhens at Euston on 29 April, and over a dozen in a half-mile reach on 13 May. A singular nest in my possession was found at Lakenheath last year : a Wren had built in a thornhedge, when a lazy Linnet saved trouble by using the \ \ rens dorne as foundation of its own nest; and both were sitting on eggs at the same time : the Wren's feeling may be imagined . (loc. cit. 1893, p. 19).

OBSERVATIONS.

285

FOOD OF BRECK B I R D S . — I send you herewith one (Frigurgitated) pellet and four droppings of Stone Curlew and one dropping of Green Woodpecker that should be of especial interest because found on the Suffolk Breck just the other day. I am trying to discover exactly what the Breckland Birds feed on in so arid a waste, and wonder if you will be good enough to teil me what these contain. May I have the remains back, as I want to examine them again with a knowledge of their Contents ? There seems to be a large proportion of sand, a fly and some Beetles that I cannot name.—HILDA M. ROWLAND, Bury; 9 Sept. [(1) The pellet of Stone Curlew shows bits of about thirty Common Earwigs (Forficula auricularia, L.), some nearly whole and their more chitinous parts, e.g. elytra and anal forceps, quite entire ; one wing of a Neuropteron, apparently a Nemoura and possibly N. variegata, Oliv. ; two short lengths of Grassstems ; sand, &c. (2) Dropping of ditto : the same species of Earwig, but much better digested and in small fragments with very few entire forceps, &c. ; the head and half-thorax of a geodephagous Beetle, probably Calathus mollis, Msh. ; several fine Grasses ; a few small Quartz stones ; and a high percentage, circa 25%, of Breck sand-nodules. (3) Ditto : ditto, no Beetles.

(4) Ditto : ditto, one thorax (?Calathus cisteloides, Pz.) and one wing-case (JOtiorhynchus ovatus, L.) of Beetles. (5) Ditto: ditto, yet more finely digested and no Insect-fragments determinable. (6) Green Woodpecker dropping : this is more interesting than any of the above for, though digested fairly small, the fragments show distinct characteristics. D R . BLAIR reports upon them : " All are Ants, so far as I can see ; most plentiful are heads of workers, with one queen, of Lasius niger, L. ; those of L. flavus, DeG., being somewhat less numerous."—Ed.] SHOULD BIRDS'-SKINS BE SET UP ?—The fourth of Suffolk's nine recorded specimens of Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus Candidus, Bonn.) was a presumed male that was shot while feeding on a shallow piece of water, the Old River, encircling Outney Common at Bungay at the end of July 1875 (Zoologist, 2nd series, p. 4634). It has been hitherto overlooked that this specimen was auctioned for the sum of 11J, guineas on 30 October 1901 locally, probably in Yarmouth (Naturalists' Journal mag. xi, 1902, p. 18).

BIRDS IN 1941 ROUND L O W E S T O F T . — A n adult Hen Harrier frequented Oulton marshes for several days in early February; and a Blackbird was heard singing on 4th. One Glaucous Gull was frequently observed to be perched upon the roof of a large building in the middle of Lowestoft, where common Gulls habitually line up after a meal. A cute Blue Tit at Corton regularly punctured the metal-foil tops of milk-bottles on doorsteps, and imbibed the contained cream.—Two Magpies were seen

OBSERVATIONS. 286 on 27 March, Aying very high and making out to sea northeasterly; at that time weather conditions were favourable for migration : clear skies, with light souther-westerly wind. Rooks and Jackdaws in fair numbers were moving eastward. I have long suspected that Continental Magpies do occasionally visit us in autumn, but never have I before witnessed their migration in actual progress, nor can I recall published reference to such migratory movements.—A Ring Ouzel was seen upon some allotment gardens on 1 May : and one evening early in that month I watched a pair of Snipe who had a nest upon a marsh : for some time both were drumming as theyflewtogether high in air. It is most unusual for the female to drum ; but, judging by the manner in which these birds maintained proximity both on land and in air, I cannot doubt their sexes : the drumming, however, was notably different, one being appreciably the feebler.—A young Woodcock was seen on 19 July upon the still fairly wild Herringfleet Hills near St. Olaves Station by the keen young Lieut. Martin, stationed here. We have evidence that a pair, possibly two, of Hawfinches have nested this year within the borough boundary ; in July I saw one pair, along with their young on the wing, in an Oulton Broad orchard ; and another pair was once or twice observed traversing the river near Waveney Hill. My previous experience of the species was limited to wild-eyed specimens in local Bird-shows, or an occasional corpse sent as a curio from outlying districts : one such, received some years ago, had been shot in Rendlesham Hall gardens, where the Hawfinch was common enough to be termed ' the Hollop.' A Linnet remained sitting upon her five eggs in a gorse-bush within a dozen yards of Home Guards' firing point during rifle practice on 20 July, despite all such noise and hubbub. Common Sandpipers had returned to Oulton Broad by 15 July from their breeding grounds ; and, a few days later, a party of a half-dozen or so was to be heard calling at dusk as theyflewin Company up and down the Broad. About 25 August a passage of Wagtails occurred : upon that day I counted overfiftyPied, and six Yellow, ones on Kirkley recreationground.—Our late Member, Mr. E. Jenner, reported a Little Stint at Breydon Water on 7 September ; a Grey-headed Wag on 17th, and a Black Redstart on 19th, both at the Ness Poin As late as 5 October young House Martins were still in their nest; a Blackbird was singing on 6th ; and the earliest Redwing observed on lOth. During that month hundreds of Finches including some Bramblings, frequented a Linseedfieldnear the coast: twice was a Sparrow-hawk seen among them! First Thrushes arrived from the east on 22nd, when Redwings also were heard calling over at night. A great influx of Rooks, Starlings, Skylarks and Thrushes occurred on 23rd, about whic date was seen thefirstHooded Crom and Goldcrests were num

OBSERVATIONS.

287

It is, indeed, good to find that Magpies, Bullfinches and Goldßnches persistently increase their numbers in the Lowestoft district.—F. C . C O O K ; 12 Nov. 1941.

CONCOURSE OF BATS.—Düring just the half-hour of dusk on 7 June last, I watched a single hole below the tiles and near the ridge above the southern wall of the ceiled stables at Holton Rectory near Haiesworth, because on the previous evening I had seen a remarkable number of Pipistrelles emerge from it, evidently from the interior shallow area between tiles and plaster.

On 6th I had very roughly counted 128 as they came out in a continuous succession ; on 7th I was prepared to take a quite careful tally of their number, and found it totalled in just thirty minutes no less than 147 specimens. One might suggest that the recent severe weather had caused them to come down to this well sheltered spot, open to only the south, from the much higher and exposed church-tower hardly fifty yards away. I had no idea Bats were so abundant as is thus proved ; and, as a Lepidopterist, cannot but deplore such plenty, which is probably of no long standing, for I have noticed perceptible diminution in the Moths of the Rectory garden during the last few years.—P. J. BURTON ; Lowestoft. [The cause of the Bats' shifting is probably correct: a case of the better hole !

They certainly would not be one family, for Pipistrelles are gregarious as regards sleeping quarters, a habit doubtless based on similarity of instinct and so fetching up at the same retreat.

In Ickworth Park I know a large, hollow Oak with a small hole, left by a Woodpecker and later enlarged ; and have seen Bats thence emerge at flighting-time in a continuous stream but never counted them, as I always arrived when many were already abroad.—H. A., Norleywood ; 15 June.]

MAMMALS IN H I G H SUFFOLK.—High farming is so rapidly exterminating our f e r s naturae that it is well to place upon record the occurrence of a Red Squirrel, observed at Flemings Hall in Bedingfield on 28 November ; and of a Fox, at the church end of the splendid old ' Carnser ' from Kenton Hall, that was slaying fowls there on 29th. The last Fox in the district did similar damage in Ashfield about four years ago ; on to its haunts the Easton beagles were turned, but they failed to make a find.

MOUSE OR SNAIL ?—On the last day of February, the first warm one we had had after the rigours of winter, I was passing along Saxstead Bottom when my eye caught many singular white blemishes adown a single, amid many a normal, stem of Whitethorn about five feet in height. The stem was in the roadside hedge that had been cut, in the modern barbarous fashion, to the ground two or three years previously ; on the road side Were some rough grass and briars, beyond was a neglected ditch bordering the arable field. Though just shooting elsewhere,

288

OBSER VATIONS.

the hedge here was in all its hiemal blackness against which these white spots shone up conspicuously. At first sight I supposed the variegation caused by some uncommon fungus, so I carried part of the stem home. Closer examination showed that nine of the ten lateral shoots on this portion had been rendered white at their junction with the main stem by the removal of the dark bark, and the pale patches were actually the ' white '-thorn showing in each case, on both stem and shoot, for about a quarter-inch. I could recollect no similar phenomenon ; no one who saw it could do so ; and it seeemed most probably caused by the rasping of a large Snail or the nibbling of a Mouse's jaws, hungry and hard put to it for food upon early emergence from hibernation. I leaned to the latter hypothesis, so sent it to Mr. Andrews, who says :—" In my opinion the bark has been removed undoubtedly by a Mouse for close inspection shows tooth-marks, while there is a total absence of slime which would have indicated Snail. A slight wrinkling of the bark at each nibbled point with an incipient bud probably concentrates enough sap to render it attractive to a Mouse on short commons. In all probability the little beast is Apodemus sylvaticus, L., the Long-tailed Field Mouse.

Shortly before last Christmas I put a bunch of Holly in our outhouse and, on going to fetch it for festive decorations, found these Mice had stripped off all berries : I had forgotten to hang it out of their reach ! " — C L A U D E MORLEY. BADGER'S MURDER AT C A P E L . — A solitary Badger (Meies taxus Bod.) has been locally known to frequent the country just south of Butley Abbey for some three years. The slot of some Mammal, suspected to be an escaped Silver Fox (cf. Proc. iii, p. cvi), was tracked in the early snow of 1941 to a burrow in a sand-pit by Capel Drift on the west side of Oak Wood, adjoining Old Hungry field ; there traps were set in front of the earth about 3 January, after which date no animal thence stirred abroad. On 21 February a couple of keepers could hear a sound of sleeping in the burrow, so began to dig and continued the process three days, for no less than forty-two feet, descending fifteen into clay, had to be excavated. When actually disturbed the animal tried to bite and, as they feared it might bolt, the keepers dug over it and then shot it dead through the protruding snout. It was found to be a fully adult Badger, weighing fourand-twenty pounds, the sleekness of whose skin showed it to be in remarkably fine condition, with adhesive rolls of fat and every part of the pelt perfect, save one slight scar of an old trapping on its hind leg. Its sand pit home is a quite useless place agriculturally ; and there it might well have been allowed to persist, attract a mate, and found a colony commensurate with

OBSERVATIONS.

289

this Society's fine Wissington one * I forgot to note the sex when examining the skin, which is being preserved for Lady Greenwell of Butley Abbey; but I did obtain permission to exhibit it at the next Meeting to be held by the SufTolk Naturalists.

The same keeper Meadows has there slain a Fox (Canis vulpes, L.) last winter and its skin, too, is being dressed. It is useless to weep over spilt milk ; but Meadows knows the collective eye of our three hundred Members is upon him : disfavourably !— GEORGE BIRD ; 6 March. " DOLPHINS AND WEATHER.—Some Dolphins [Delphinus delpkis, L - T r a n s , ii, p. 30] were seen here, sporting near land, on 1 March last. Folks say that this is a sign of bad weather here; the Naturalists' Calendar says the opposite: I cannot pretend to say which is right. But the week following the occurrence was very dull and cloudy, a streng wind blew throughout it, and heavy rain feil the following Saturday and Sunday.— CHAS J . MARTEN, Wellesley Road, Gt. Yarmouth" (Naturalists' Gazette, iii, 1891, p. 23).

Risso's GRAMPUS IN HANTS.—It will interest Members to know the Society's late Mammals Recorder has just established the tirst record for the Solent area of this Dolphin, twice taken on I. Wight's south coast. On the sea-shore, one mile west of Needs-oar Point at the mouth of Beaulieu River, I found a decomposed specimen of the very rare and little known Grampus griseus, Riss., ten feet four inches in length. I have taken the skull, though unfortunately all the three pairs of teeth in the lower jaw are missing. I informed the Zoological Society and Nat. Hist. Museum of the discovery ; and our Member, Dr. Haines who is Recorder of the Hampshire Field Club, is very interested in both the Grampus and a Common Seal, Phoca vitulina, L., found by me at Needs-oar in August 1940, though hardly ever known in Hants. Have done much Seabird Observation ; but cannot now get to I. Wight to examine the coteries at Alum cliffs and the Needles.—HENRY ANDREWS, Norleywood ; 12 July. [This Cetaceous Mammal, of at most some thirteen feet, very rarely occurs in even southern British waters and differs from all our other Dolphins in total lack of teeth in the Upper jaw. It is generally distributed, and feeds mainly upon the Molluscan Cuttle-fish.—Ed.] SUFFOLK M A M M A L S . — A few winters ago a live Seal of the present species [Phoca vitulina, L.,] that had been caught below Yarmouth, was brough to Ipswich and carried about the streets * " Waspswere very plentiful [in the Cotswold Hills during 1914, when] I was shown four holes from which Badgers, also common there, had dug out and eaten the nests in one night. This suggests that, if Badgers were allowed to live in all parts of the country instcad of being stupidly exterminated, we should hear less of plagues of Wasps than we do, for there was absolutelv nothing left of the nests but a iew bits of the paper of the outer envelopes." — Charles Nicholson, E M M . 1917 119.

THE

BUTLEY

BADGER.

290

OBSERVATIONS.

in a basket as a show. Dr. Hamilton, my accurate and highly intelligent friend of Ipswich, saw and examined it. The animal was so gentle as to suffer him, though a stranger, to stroke its head ; whilst, at the same time, it turned quickly about with open mouth, like a dog in the act of playing, rolling its fine black eye as if greatly delighted. It also allowed him, without any difficulty, to examine its fore-feet; and to extend, in order to view their structure, the webs of the hinder ones (p. 60). . .

Düring the hunting of a Fox near Sudbury in Suffolk, by Mr. Daniel's hounds, the Fox ran into a hole in the ground, whence two men dug him out and he was killed by the Hounds. Meanwhile a Terrier bitch stole into the same earth, where the diggers found a female Fox with five cubs, two of which the Terrier had killed. The other three were saved from her fury and, not long afterwards, were put to her to suckle and bring up.

Singular as it may appear, she suckled and reared them, tili they were able to shift for themselves (p. 120) . . . I am informed

by Dr. Hamilton of Ipswich that it is very difficult, if not altogether impossible, to poison the Cat [Felis domesticus, L.] Arsenic, corrosive S u b l i m a t e and nux v o m i c a , have all failed.

A gentleman of Ipswich endeavoured, by means of these substances concealed in pieces of Salmon, to destroy a great number of Cats that frequented his garden during nights, trampling over flower beds and damaging plants. In the mornings he regularly found that the baits had been eaten ; but, in spite of this, the animals continued as numerous as before.

That Cats are thus able to resist poison seems to arise from the peculiar irritability of their stomach, and a tendency of the peristaltic motion to inversion, thus exciting them to vomit immediately on the introduction of substances that are offensive to them. Thus they rid themselves of the poison before it mixes with the gastric juice or is desolved sufficiently to excite dangerous inflammation (p. 151) . . . The Rev. Revett Sheppard [then but 21] informs me that he has often Seen Stoats [Mustela erminea, L.] in the act of hunting Rabbits [Lepus cuniculus, L.] He says that, when they get into a warren, they will thread all the holes they come near; passing from one to another with amazing swiftness, tili they are able to discover and seize upon their prey (p. 185) . . . The most favourite food of Hares [Lepus Europceus, Pall.] is green corn, parsley, pinks or birch ; and in young plantations they eat the bark of every tree, except Alder and Lime. A Suffolk gentleman [' Sir T. Gooch of Benacre,' inserted in pencil in my copy.—CM.] in 1798 was obliged to destroy his Hares, near some new plantations ; and the amount of what were known to have fallen victims was one thousand and eighty two [in the year the road was constructed across Latimer Dam] (p. 291).—Excerpts from ' Memoirs of British Quadrupeds,' by Revd. W. Bingley 1809, dated from Christchurch, Hants, who seems to have corresponded with the Ven. William Kirby immediately after its issue (cp. Freeman'» ' Life,' 245).