Argynnis Dia, A Butterfly new to Suffolk

TRANSACTIONS. ARGYNNIS DIA, A BUTTERFLY NEW TO SUFFOLK. BY

OUR

RHOP\LOCERA

RECORDER.

M O R E than a dozen vears ago I had the honour of opening these Transactions with a record of the beautiful Parnassius Apollo Butterfly's appearance on our Suffolk coast (Trans, i, 13) ; since then the Society has added 2,700 species to our County's flora and fauna ; but the task s not complete. Later Argyntiis Niobe was introduced by M r . Naunton Waller (Trans, iii, 6) ; and, by 1937, all but eight of our indigenous Rhopalocera vvere known here (Memoir i, 118). Now I have the pleasure of bringing forward yet another kind, Argynnis Dia, Linn.

This common Continental insect is represented by a drawerful in the British M u s e u m and, in even British periodicals,* I find it noted from (1) Turkey, (2) Bulgaria, (3) Italy, (4) Spain, (5) France, (6) Switzerland and (7) Germany ; in (8) N o r m a n d y it is regularly double-brooded, emerging on the wing in May and August.

I have not come across it myself, though the closely allied A. Amathusia, Esp., occurred commonly to me at Antibes on Cรถte d'Azur in 1933. A. Dia, has an expanse of little over 31 m m . ; the upper side is just as figured by South in 1906, pl. lxvi, fig. 6 ; but below, the hind wings are far more argentine than those of A. selene, especially conspicuous in three oblique marks touching the far straighter costal margin, a characteristic triangular discal one and a semilunate one midway between the latter and inner margin, whereupon abuts a small circular one. ' Weaver's Fritillary' was unknown to Lewin in 1795, Samouelle in 1819 and ignored by Westwood (Synop. 88) in 1840. Its earlier occurrences here were scouted by Stainton in 1857, Merrin 1860, *Exemp. grat. : (1) Ent. Ree. xxiv, 12 ; (2) loc. cit. xii, 33 ; (3) E M M .

887 151 ; (4) Ent. Ree. xiv, 11 ; (5) E M M . 1890, 283 ; E n t o m . 1907, 51 & 1908, 294-8 ; (6) Zool. 1856, 5226 ; E M M . 1879, 277 ; 1908, 244 ; r-ntom. 1906, 33 ; (7) E n t . Ree. xviii, 34 ; (8) I.e. xiv, 314.

it

2

A BUTTERFLY NEW TO SUFFOLK.

E. N e w m a n 1869 a n d South 1906. W . F . Kirby in 1882, 18, regards it as " c o m m o n in woods in spring and a u t u m n t h r o u g h o u t central and southern E u r o p e ; and has been captured several times in south England, though not yet regularly placed as a British species."

Both Laetitia Jermyn of Ipswich and Stephens (Illus. Haust, i, 34) in 1827 give it as questionably indigenous ; in the latter's collection, now in M u s . Brit., is said to be a specimen of d o u b t f u l origin, t h o u g h his are marked as foreign in Cat. 1829, 18. N o more than eight records of A. Dia seem to have have been localised in England, and none f r o m elsewhcre in our islands ; these appear never to have been assembled, and are of varying reliability. As far as 1 can discover :— T w o were captured by the dealer, Richard Weaver of Birmingham, in about 1825 and 1830 at Sutton Park in Warwick, and recorded as a var. of A. selene by Revd. W . T . Bree in L o u d o n ' s M a g . N a t . Hist. v, 1832, p. 750, very fairly figured at 1 2 4 ; cf. J. C. Dale Esquire, in T h e Naturalist (Groombridge), i, 1838, p. 145. O n e of these seems to be a single male that is still extant in the Dale collection at Oxford ( E M M . 1907, 130).

A t least one comes f r o m as far north as Cheshire, since M o r r i s in 1852-3, w h o poorly figures the underside, and Coleman in 1862 (ed. 1890, 172, pl. xvi, fig. 4), consider " there is little reason to d o u b t that it was really taken at Sutton Park, also by M r .

Stanley at Alderley in Cheshire." But Westwood in 1855, 134, still retains it as merely r e p u t e d to be a native.

O n e was knocked d o w n by a village lad's cap in a garden at C o o k h a m D e a n e in Berks during m i d - S e p t e m b e r 1857 (Ent. W k . Inte11. 1857, p p . 60, 90, 138, &c).

O n e at Worcester Park in Surrey during 1872 ( E n t o m . 1876, 68 ; E M M . 1876, 229).

O n e in K e n t during July 1873 ( E n t o m . 1873, 484 ; E n t . Annual 1874, 155).

O n e (or two adjacent) in Sussex, near T u n b r i d g e Wells,* in early July 1876 ( E n t o m . 1883, 41 ; E M M . 1883, 210).

T h e latest one came f r o m E p p i n g in Essex ' some years ' before 1883 ( E n t o m . 1883, 112).

T h e n i n t h British specimen is a Suffolk male, of w h i c h our M c m b e r M r . E. W . Platten writes on 9 July 1942 : " H a v i n g a s u r p l u s of c o m m o n Butterflies and M o t h s , in 1900 I set t h e m out * Coleman adds, in only his 1897 edition, that A. Dia has been taken at ' Hastings,' which looks like a slip for the above N O R T H Sussex record, in the absence of any confirmatory notice.—CM., Haiesworth 27 vii 1942.

MR.

GARRETT

GARRETT.

THE COELOMYCETES NEW TO SUFFOLK.

3

geometrically in a sealed glass case where they remained tili 1941, when the Fritillaries were still unfaded. T h e n I broke open the case and noticed one A. selene a good deal smaller than is typical, with curious underside ; this I showed, and have now presented, to our Hon. Secretary who ascertains it to be Argynnis Dia, L. Its origin is given by my old diary : on ' 16 May 1899. Took Iarge numbers of Euphrosyne at Bentley Woods near Ipswich and, in an adjacent marsh, one very small specimen of that species or an early Selene.' No reason emerges why it should not have there fed upon the abundant Viola odorata, except its uniqueness ; otherwise one can but suppose it blown from the Continent, as these extensive and distinctly wild woods are only four miles from the Orwell estuary and ten from the coast of Suffolk."

TUE

COELOMYCETES

OF

SUFFOLK.

(Second List).

B Y ARTHUR MAYFIELD,

F.L.S.

THE following Stern- and Leaf- Fungi have been collected since ihe publication of the former list (Trans, vol. iv, p.101). With a few exceptions otherwise specified, they were found in the parish of Mendlesham. All 94 are NEW species for Suffolk.

371.

372.

373.

374.

375.

376.

377.

3 78.

379.

380.

381.

382.

383.

384.

SPHAEROPSIDALES. Phyllosticta Ranunculorum, Sac.-Sp. On Ranunculus repens.

Ph. circumcissa, Cooke.—On Prunus Laurocerasus.

Ph. malt, Phil.-Delacr.—On Pyrus malus.

Phoma Callunce, Karst.—On Calluna, Redgrave.

P. strobiligena, Desm.—On Pine cones.

P. ligustrina, Sacc.—On Ligustrum.

P. minutula, Sacc.—On Lonicera periclymenum.

P. polygramma, Sacc.—On Plantago lanceolata.

P. anceps, Sacc.,var. Polygoni, Grove.—On Polygonum cuspidatum in Brockford.

Dendrophoma pleurospora, Sacc.—On Populus nigra.

Sclerophoma pithya, v. Hohn.—On Pinus sylvestris.

Phomopsis pustulata, Died.—On Acer campestris and A. Pseudoplatanus.

P. Dipsaci, Grove.—On Dipsacus pilosus.

P. pterophila, Died.—On samaras of Fraxinus.