Suffolk Swallow-tails in 1945

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THE FAUNA OF A N IPSWICH

MEADOW.

ii.—BATRACHIA.

T h e Frog, Rana temporaria, L., and the Toad, Bufo vulgaris, Laur., are our only Reptiles ; I have never yet found evidence of the presence of Lizards or Snakes. iii.—MAMMALIA.

Our wild Animals are of few species, and restricted to those one would reasonably expect to find in such environment :—The Common Bat, Vesperugo pipistrellus, Sch., occurs as a matter of course.

The Hedgehog, Erinaceus Europaus, L., is in evidence throughout summer. Molehills of Talpa Europaa, L. and the Common Shrew, Sorcx araneus, L., both abound on the Meadow ; and the Rabbit, Lepus cuniculus, L., is ubiquitous. A small colony of Red Squirrels, Sciurus vulgaris, Brk., inhabits the copses and timbered gardens ; it moves from Burlington House through a thin belt of Corsican Pines to the garden-fence and Scots Pines of QueensclifT, and continues a 500-yards' arboreal journey to the grounds of Stonecroft ; in early spring, during presumed food shortage, they sometimes visit the Bird-table. House Mice, Mus musculus, L. and Brown Rats. M. Norvegicus, Brk., are not in unduc numbers ; and Weasels, Mustela nivalis, L., occasionally show themselves.

SUFFOLK SWALLOW-TAILS IN 1945.

CONTINENTAL eruptions seem the superficial causes of phenomenal numbers of various Insects' presence all round the south, southwest and south-east coasts of Britain this year : e.g. Long-tailed Blues and Striped Hawks at Dorchester, Bath Whites in Cornwall, Greek Hoverer Flies at Bournemouth and Bristol, Convolvulus and Hummingbird Hawks, Common Whites, Red Admirals, Painted Ladies and Swallow-tailed Butterflies in our own County. Extraneous odd specimens of the last have occasionally been noted here before (Trans, iii, 85, &c.) but certainly never, for at least I i centuries or Kirby would have referred to it, hasPapilo Machaon, Linn., come across in such a foule as last summer ; and few folk appreciated the fact, because specimens were generally observed but singlv, as though merelv blown astray. It remains for our Society to collate and analyse the data.

I saw a Swallow-tail, for the first time in my life outside a glasscase, on the wing at Felixstow on 15 July last (Mr. Harold E. P. Spencer, Ipswich Museum ; 25th). Dr. Garnett saw one Aying along Leiston High-street on 15th (Revd. Henry Waller). A single specimen Aying over farm-buildings at Weybread (E. Daily Press, 20th). One at Rushmere golf-course near Ipswich on 17th (Miss Perks, 74 Brunswich-road, Ipswich). Two at Pakefield about the 18th (Goddard, v.v.). My young friend, Master Raymond John Stannard of 13}, has shown me two Machaon that he netted in a clover tield at Dunnett-farm in Huntingfield on 19 July ; he added,

SWALLOW TAILS OF SUFFOLK.

181

regretfully, that a third he saw with them had eluded him. Such tripartite occurrence, with the records at pp. 46 & 110 supra, makes one wonder whcther M r . Goddard's indigenous breeding at p. 111 rcally be unique in our County nowadays. However, thcre certainlv had been a very stiff wind blowing straight from the Fens during several preceding days (Hocken, 22nd). A Swallow-tail passed in a beet-field close to me, blown before a strong southerly wind, at 11.30 a.m. on 19 July in Hitcham near Bildeston, thirty miles inland (Alwyn Bull, 6 Aug.). A ladv caught, and liberated, one in Laxfield about 20th (Rev. Herbert Biggs, v.v.). One was settled on some Fennel in my Snape garden on 2 I s t ; as far as I know none have been liberated anywhere in Suffolk this vear.

My brother, Major Hugh Buxton, has been to Snape only in December last; his address is : East Murthill, Forfar (Mrs. Waterfield, 28th). A perfect was caught upon Waldringfield Cliff on 23rd, and brought to me. I hope we shall hear more of specimens observed, rather than slain (Canon A. P. Waller). At midday on 24th one was observed, Aying about and several times settling on the ground with outspread wings, in a Clopton garden, north-west of Woodbridge (Spencer, 25th). My second flew across the Leiston to Theberton road as I was motoring along it on 24th ; I stopped to look for it but, as it had disappeared, I proceeded on my way and had not gone a hundred yards when the same or another flew across the road in the opposite direction.

Later I saw two more specimens near Leiston (Garnett, 1 Aug.).

One seen on Lavender-flowers in Tangham Chimneys garden, Hollesley Heath, in last half of July ; also one there in 1939 (Lt.Col. Paul Fearon, in lit.). On 25th one was captured in a cap at Knoddishall, escaped, and was recaught, despite which hectic finish to its career it is in almost cabinet condition ( T . E. Legg, in lit.). A lady, n.n., believes that she saw one at Shotley on 29 July (Spencer, v. v.). We have been watching a beautiful swallow Tail on some Buddleia-bushes in our garden at Leiston Abbey to-day, only about a quarter-mile from Dr. Garnett's second specimen (The Misses Rope there, 29th). One on purple Buddleiaflowers at 12.45 noon on 1 August in Oueenslciff Cottage garden, Ipswich (E. C. Green). One in Middleton-road, Gorleston, about 4 August and one in my garden at 120 Lowestoft-road there on 1 Ith (Mrs. J. L. Moore, in lit. 12th). T h e final specimen of which we have heard appeared in Buxhall n c t o r \ garden on 7 August (Revd. H. Copinger Hill, 9th).

Now these two dozen examples spread over a period of just under one month, from 15 July to 11 August, during which the weather was, with a few foul days, the wärmest and most genial of the year. 15th (Felixstow & Leiston, 2) had max. temp. 88°, wind S., rising to gale force at n i g h t ; 17th (Weybread Sc Rushmere, 2) was much cooler, with SE. light air and dull afternoon ; 18th (Pakefield, 2), sultry with hot E. air, rising at night, temp. 68° at

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SWALLOW TAI LS OF SUFFOLK.

11 p.m. ; 19th (Huntingfield & Hitcham, 4) a hot day with S - S W . breeze, after stiff VV. wind ; 20th (Laxfield, 1) sultry with stiff breeze & slight shower ; 21st (Snape, 1) very warm, S W breeze ; 23rd (Waldringfield, 1) hot day, temp. 78°, with light S W breeze ; 24th (Clopton & Leiston, 3) light SE air, sunny morning ; 25th (Knoddishall, 1) dull and sultry, slight SSE air that made evening cool, as following three dull days continued to be. 29th (Shotley & Leiston Abbey, 2) much warmer again, with a good deal of sun & no air ; 1 August (Ipswich Stoke, 1) slight N air, mainlv dull ; 4th (Gorleston 1) very hot day with slight SW air and perpetual sun ; 7th (Buxhall, 1) horridly cool day with N W air, but no rain or thunder like 6th ; 11 August (Gorleston, 1) had less sun than lOth but was warmer with light W air.

That none, or but a negligible proportion of the speeimens, were indigenous (Snape, Lowestoft), seems sufficientlv proved by the utter absence of any lirst brood here ; and, to a lesser degree, by the darker, Continental coloration of such as we ourselvcs saw.

On the other hand, we have heard of no more than four speeimens elsewhere in E. Anglia, all apparently Coming from the south : on Buddleia flowers in Telegraph-lane at Norwich on 17 July (E. Daily Press, 20th); on Sea Lavender of the back water, with tide ebbed, opposite Horsey Island at Lower Kirby in Essex on 15 July (Mrs. C. M . Staddon, Spring-road, Ipswich); another that day, only a couple of miles away, at Walton-on-Naze, where also on 19th was the fourth (Noel Blyth). All were within ten miles of the coast, excepting the rather late ones of Hitcham, Clopton and Buxhall which, considering their strength of flight, proves little. But, that they actually were extraneous, seems pretty certain by the first's occurrence at Felixstow, borne upon a stiif southerly breeze, as is so often the case with immigrant Colias Edusa ; and by the last's occurrence at Gorleston, at the furthest extremity of our coast-line. Elsewhere in Britain only ten speeimens are recorded, up to October, all south of the line Swanage, Cadnam, Ivinghoe in Bucks, Guildford, Tunbridge and Ashford in Kent, during 19 July to 2 August.

As a natural corollarv, their progeny have been discovered : one larva on Carrot in a doctor's garden, hardly above the level of of the Broad, in Oulton village on 27 Aug. (being tended by M r .

Jim Burton) ; several on 3Ăźth, on the above plant of Fennel visited by imago, at Snape, though " most of the caterpillars walked otf, but I have sccured two chrysalides and hope to see them emerge next spring " (Mrs. Waterheld, 12 ix) ; and one full-fed larva in the St. Felix School grounds at Reydon on 7 September (George Baker). In early September,' my g'rand-daughter, who is a schoolgirl of nine, found a Caterpillar feeding on carrot in my garden at The Straithe in Beccles, which has now pupated ; a second has since been found in another Beccles garden, also feeding on carrot (Mrs. Amy Wood-Hill, 4 October).