Observations 7 Part 3

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OBSERVATIONS. " U t T i p p u l a , ut Papilio, sie vita h o m i n i s . " ( O n a 1629 Brass in Preston C h u r c h , Suffolk.)

N E W SUFFOLK A R A C H N I D A — A Harvestman Oligdophus Meadi, Camb. (Trans, iv, 166), from Icklingham Rampart Field in September 1949 ; and a False-scorpion Pselaphochernes scorpioides, Herrn., several in leaf-mould at Horringer Court in April 1949 ; are both new to Suffolk. Of the latter group, my record (at Trans, vii, 17) of C. Panzeri is a mistake for the correct Xendrochernes cyrneus, L. Koch., from Ickworth Park in August 1948 ; and R. lubricus came from Nowton, not Horningsheath.—OWEN GILBERT. MITES ON BATS.—I have just been given a list of mite records from Bats which include some Suffolk finds. T h e determinations are by Mr. J. Hobart. Argas vespertilionis, Lat. Embedded in skin of Pipistrelle, caught Aying by R. Linnet, 17 September, 1950. Spinturnix vespertilionis, L. Eastgate Caves, 29 December, 1950, on wings of Daubenton's ; also there from wing of Longeared. Spinturnix acuminatus, Koch. On wing of Barbastelle caught Aying, R. Linne«, 15 September, 1951. Spinturnix sp. nymph (poss. acuminatus). On wing of dead Long-eared, Little Saxham Church, July 1950. Trombidia larva. From ear of Natterer's, Eastgate Caves, 29 January, 1950.—OWEN GILBERT. [All three species N E W to SuAolk.—Ed.] PARASITIC COPEPOD. Attached to the skin on the posterior edge of the Arst dorsal An of the Basking Shark (Selache maxima) on 11 September, caught at S»uthwold, were three parasitic crustacea. They were about 3 | inches in length. I preserved them in 4% formalin and sent one to Mr. J. P. Harding of the B.M. (Nat. History) for his opinion which he kindly gives, as follows : " Thank you for the speeimen of parasitic copepod found on a Basking Shark. This is Dinematura producta (O. F. Muller) 1951. 9.15.1., a species which is found on Basking Sharks and occasionally on other sharks. I am very pleased to keep the speeimen as you have preserved it well, and we have very few speeimens with such complete egg strings."—D. W. COLLINGS. [NEW to Suffolk (cf. Trans, v, 80) : not in Plymouth Marine Fauna 1931, p. 115.—Ed.] SOUTH SUFFOLK BEETLES.—This year I can record Lucanus cervus, and Dorcus, from Arger Fen in Assington. The commonest Sudbury wire-worms are Agriotes obscurus and sputator ; and at Long Melford I have found Lampyris noctiluca, L. Among the Hymenoptera I have been suffering from a Ane attack of the Sawfly, Hoplocampa testudinea, Klug. T h e sole uncommon Worm

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I have seen this year was Dendrobctna arborea, Eisen, near Hundon.

H. C. GRANT, Sudbury ; 9 July.—Nacerdes melanura, Sehn. : a male of this coast Heteromeron flew in to light at my lodgings in Stradbroke-road, Southwold, on 16 July, 1 9 5 1 . CLAUDE MORLEY.—Melasoma longicolle, Suff., was beaten from Poplar in Catfield Fen, Norfolk, 23 June last and Silpha leevigata swept at Mildenhall on 18th. J I M BURTON. A G I A N T CLICK.—Among some Beetles taken by Member Aston at Stowmarket on 20 June, 1951 is a %Lacon murinus, Linn., so large that at first I thought it the central European Adelocera punctata, Host. ; but I possess L. murinus of 16J mm. in length from Germany. Stephens gives the latter's British length as 5-8J lines ; Fowler 9-14 mm. ; and my own are 11 (Mildenhall) -15 (Lowestoft) mm. Mr. Aston's is just 17 mm.—CLAUDE MORLEY. ANOTHER SUFFOLK Leptinotarsa 10-lineata, Say. (Trans, vii, 45).—" A live Colorado Beetle was found on 29 June in a crate of imported Apricots, lying in an Ipswich warehouse. It has been sent to Cambridge for laboratory examination " (Local paper, 30 June, 1951).—Suffolk being, inferentially, too ignorant for such a task !—Ed. LACE-WINGED F L Y NEW TO SUFFOLK.—After collecting rather fruitlessly through the entire length of Foxburrow Wood in Blythburgh during the morning of 1 July last, one of the first really hot days of 1951 with some southerly breeze, Mr. Jim Burton and I tried beating for Coccinella A-punctata, Pont., (which, as we antieipated, did not occur, being pupal at that period), in New Delight spruce wood adjacent. And there, about 1.30 p.m., a male of the red-headed Osmylus chrysops, Linn., feil into the Bignell-tray but in so lively a condition that it well-nigh escaped. This covert is waterless and stands on sandy heath, so the individual had doubtless been blown there by the south wind from the Foxburrow marshes only some three hundred yards away, though never seen in the latter, which has no running water, through fifty years' collecting. Details of the species were given, in expectation of its presence in Suffolk, at Trans, iv, 191.—CLAUDE MORLEY. M A C R O - M O T H S IN NE. SUFFOLK, 1950.—" On 21 April I travelled to Lowestoft. In spite of sunny weather we saw only a single Nymphalis polychloros, which eluded us. T h e chief feature was the number of larvae of Actia villica which were to be found everywhere along the coast, sunning themselves mainly in the afternoon. Larvae of Tapinostola elymi were very plentiful in Lyme Grass stems. We also found a few larvae of Senta maritima and Leucania straminea. The only visitors to Sloe blossom on

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the evening of 23rd were O. gracilis . . . I made a further journey to Lowestoft on 21 July. That night we tried some of the local marshland. I have never before seen so many Leucania straminea and Arenostola phragmitidis on the reeds. They must have been in hundreds. We took several small Wainscots at dusk and at our lights about 11.30, but it was not tili we had got home that we noticed they all had white thoracic crests and no spots on the underside, indicating that they were Nonagria neurica, which had been bred before on only three occasions from the district.

Naturally we were delighted at this find, and were also equally pleased and surprised when we discovered that some larger Wainscots among our captures were Arenostola brevilinea, never before seen in this part of Suffolk [i.e. to the south of Fritton and Barnby (SNS. Mem. i, 1937, p. 24.)—Ed.], The following day, 22 July, which was warm but very windy, we visited some of the heathland to the south, where Plebeius Argus was very plentiful with a large proportion of blue females. There were plenty of Eumenis semele and a few fresh Argynnis Cydippe. We went to another part of the marshes that night, but the high wind prevented good collecting. However, we again found A. brevilinea and a few S. maritima at dusk. Other species seen included Agrotis vestigialis, Miltochrista miniata, Lithosia complana and Cleora lichenaria with many Leucania impudens. 23 July was a very fitful day. On the outskirts of Lowestoft I shelled out many pupae of Nonagria sparganii, sometimes two in a stem of the large Reedmace. In the evening we revisited the scene of our first successes.

We again took some N. neurica and further A. brevilinea, and one Gastropacha quercifolia."—Member De Worms in Entom.

1951, pp. 146-9.

T H E SEASON OF 1951.—Never have we experienced so utterly barren a year for all sorts and conditions of Insects of every Order, which is saying more than appears upon the surface (for our M. S. Entomological Diary opens in August 1887 with the entry : " I found a large Sphinx convolvuli at rest upon an iron painted seat in the garden of Gothic House at West Cowes in Isle of Wight, which I killed (after some time !) with spirits of Camphor : I do not think it had just emerged but, nevertheless, it was a beautiful specimen.—Took Vanessa Io, Argynnis Paphia, A. Adippe in woods, Aying over and settled on high bracan [sie], also Satyrus Megaera and S. Tithonus along hedges, at Bloomfield, a little village, between Taunton and Bridgewater"). So inclement was the entire spring that a few days' visit to the north-west Breck, intended for May, had to be deferred to mid-June and then emergence there was found to be well nigh a month late.

But a Single Harmodia (Anepia) irregularis, Hfn., was netted in three evenings dusking at Campion flowers; and its pabulum found in two villages.—EDITOR.

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Mandes venustula, HUB.—More exactly, six specimens of this small Noctuid were captured on 25 June 1935 and 27 June 1937, all after dusk by Walking with a light and kicking up plants of Potentilla sp. in Blythburgh on the edge of Henham Park at a spot now destroyed (cp. SNS. Mem. i, p. 213). Mr. Goddard's single specimen came to light set at the cross roads, just south of an entrance into the wood lying next to Covehithe church inland, on 8 July 1939 (cp. Trans, iv, 132). Just within this entrance our Hon. Secretary and I discovered good beds of a Potentilla well before dusk (at which time the imagines are said to fly) on 29 June 1951 and very carefully worked them thence to 11.30 ; but nothing of the least note emerged and the temperature gradually dropped to 54°.—P. J. B U R T O N .

LARV/E OF Cucullia Verbasci, L I N N . — A t a disused gravel-pit in Bury the three Mulleins, Verbascum Lychnitis, nigrum and Thapsus, grow in about equal profusion ; yet only on the last do I find larvse of Cucullia verbasci, feeding upon leaves and stalks, both there and in Breckland. If gently stroked down their back with a seed-stem of Rye-grass or Darnel, these caterpillars will elevate their anterior moiety and, swaying it laterally, jerk their heads and eject from the mouth a small drop of greenish-brown, oily liquid, presumably obnoxious to their hymenopterous and avian enemies.—H. J. BOREHAM ; April. [The species was found on V. Thapsus abundantly at Mildenhall in July 1942 (Goddard) and is always common by the river at Brandon. It had been noted in Suffolk by W. C. Hewitson before 1821, when Stephens records it as found by himself feeding profusely in Mr. Kirby's Barham garden upon Verbascum.—Ed.]

The commonest moth at Stowmarket up to 18 May has been Biston hirtarius, Clk., of which fourteen were noted between 19 April and 10 May, 1951. Later there occurred Hylophila bicolorana in Barking Wood on 18 July ; Zensera pyrina $ in Finborough Parva on 10 August and $ at Stowmarket light on 27 July, whereat Hadena ochroleuca has been really common this year ; Acherontia Atropos larvae were found at Stow Upland on 1 August, Needham on 3 and 9 September. Lycana agon was Aying at Barton Mills by 22 July [though were already shabby by 15that Dunwich, where Nonagria sparganii was in coast-marshes: almost the first good night of the year for sugaring. Ed.] (W. G. THURLOW).—A single Hydriomena alchemillata, L., $ flew indoors to light at Monks Soham on 1 August. Though fairly frequent in the New Forest and Dorset, Mr. Burton has never seen it about Lowestoft; nor have I, anywhere in SufTolk, since I found one at a gas street-lamp on Willoughby Hill in Ipswich on 20 August 1895 ( C L A U D E M O R L E Y ) . — A $ Argyroploce purpurana, Haw., came to my light in Stowmarket on 2 July ( A . E. A S T O N ) .

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Orgyia gonostigma, F A B . — I found caterpillars feeding upon the leaves of Sycamore pseudoplatanus saplings grown in the Corporation Works Yard at Bury, early in August 1950 ; these saplings have since been destroyed. This is an unusual food plant; the caterpillars were feeding on the old hard, dry and tough leaves, mostly on the lower branches. leaving the young and more succulent ones near the top untouched. I placed seven larvae in a box, covering it with glass, and left it on the ground out in the open ; I fed them every other day with fresh leaves and found that only the oldest leaves were eaten : when young leaves were introduced they were always left untouched. These caterpillars fed up, spun their coccoons and turned to chrysalides in late August. Four reached the moth State late in September : one male and three females. T h e male was first to emerge ; next day a female emerged ; they paired, but no eggs were laid. When I was looking at them next morning the male escaped, but, to my surprise, returned to the box in the early evening. After three days I removed him. After one more day had elapsed, another female emerged and laid eggs upon her empty cocoon, where she remained. These eggs are in my possession, April 20th, 1951, just as the female laid them. T h e last female emerged in September and did not remain on the cocoon but moved sluggishly about the bottom of the box, where she died without laying eggs. T h e male's cocoon had been spun by the Caterpillar half rolling an almost consumed leaf at the stalk end ; this had been done by drawing and fastening the jagged edges together with silken threads, the cocoon being constructed inside the half-rolled fragment of leaf. T h e cocoons from which the three females emerged were all constructed in the corners of the box. T h e three cocoons which have remained through the winter and from which no moths have emerged by April 1951, are also constructed and fastened in the corners of the box. Specimens, showing the life cycle from egg to perfect male and female, were exhibited by me at a Meeting of the Suffolk Naturalists Society in Ipswich Museum on 16 December 1950—H. J. B O R E H A M ; April 1951.

V. polychloros was scarce last spring ; I first saw it at east Wangford on 5 May, when P. ripae and L. argiolus appeared in Lowestoft. Calocalpe certata occurred rarely in Looms Lane at Bury on 15 June. At South Cove heath one Caradrina pyralina, V., came to light on 25 July, with Lithosia complana and eight Graphiphora ditrapezium, Bkh. M M . Quibell and Wiltshire took no Leucania flavicolor at Shingle-street in Hollesley, but a series of C. elymi, Tr., on the south sandhills at Southwold, with only Single Ripa and Abjecta though Littoralis was not rare, before he left on 23 July with very many Nonagria dissoluta pupac from Lowestoft marshes, of which one produced a black imago on 7 August. Mr. Austin Richardson came for one night from Gloucester and introduced me to the Mercury Vapour illumination at

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marshes near Southwold on 27 July : its attraction is very effective but seems to make the Moths attracted skittish and difficult to box : one also has to carry a cumbrous generating engine, trailed behind one's car. Two Nonagria neurica Hb., new to him, alone came to it that warm evening. One $ Caradrina petasitis (Trans, supra, p. 86) was netted at dusk on 25 August at Glevering Bridge.—JIM

BURTON.

Vanessa polychloros is at Southolt and I am almost certain it breeds in Wych-elms on my opposite neighbour's farm. Thecla w-album is also on this property, and was first noticed by my son in 1949 feeding on Solomon's Seal in our garden. T. rubi was seen by three of my family as late as mid-June 1950 in the grounds of St. Felix School, Southwold. R. M. HANDFIELD-JONES ; Southolt, 18 March.—I observed no Polychloros ; and but a solitary Colias edusa, at Ramsholt on 27 August. (Canon) A. P. WALLER. [Suffolk's only one throughout 1951.—Ed.] SUFFOLK'S 16TH Deilephila Celerio, L.—On 1 December, 1950, a friend presented me with a very slightly rubbed male of this Hawk-moth that was transfixed by an ordinary pin and already too stiff to set.

He told me it had been captured in a Beccles shop, (like that of 15 October 1860 though this time a bookseller's), and only its condition showed it was not recently taken. In June 1951 I took Eustrotia luctuosa, the first noticed in this district (Trans, supra, vol. vi, pp. 60, 133, lxi).—GEORGE BAKER, Reydon, Southwold ; v. v. 14 July. [To the isolated records of D. Celerio at Orford in 1865 and Woodbridge in 1878 (SNS, Mem. i, 90) add : E M M . 1865, pp. 161-2.—Ed.]

Acherontia Atropos, L., in July.—My husband found a Deathshead Caterpillar in the garden of Doles-farm at Stow Upland last August. We put it in a box with soil, wherein it burrowed in due course and became a chrysalis. This 1951 spring we damped the soil occasionally ; and on 17 July the Moth emerged. It was kept under a meat-safe tili 18th evening, then liberated. It is said to be not very usual for the chrysalis to survive the winter.

(Mrs.) JOAN G . M O Y , Stow U p l a n d ; 19 July.

THREE HAWK-MOTHS.—This pseudo-summer (1) larvse of Hemaris fuciformis, L., were common on Honeysuckle at Hollesley in July ; (2) a single imago of Sphinx pinastri, L., was found at Aldeburgh on 25 June, and another at Sutton in early July ; and (3) at the end of August a couple of almost fully fed Acherontia Atropos, L., were discovered upon a patch of garden Potatoes at Dallinghoo and brought to me. Also a female Horntail, Sirex gigas, L., occurred in a new Coniferous grove at Melton ; and recently I took the Beetles : Small Stag, Dorcus, alive at Newbury in Berks, and Rose-beetle, Cetonia aurata, L., alive at Bath in Somerset.—R. W. K. KEFFORD ; 13 Sept.

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MORE HAWK-MOTHS.—We noticed Sphinx pinastri sitting on a Pine-trunk here recently ; it seems well established in this district.

S. ligustri emerged on 23 June from a pupa dug from close to the surface, about nine feet from my front door last autumn.— Major F. H. W. ROSS-LEWIN, T h e White House, St. Olaves ; 26 June — Two S. pinastri were on Pines at Fritton Warren, 24 June last.

E. P. WILTSHIRE, Herringfleet; v. v.

I observed one Limenitis Sibylla, L., on 30 of last July in the grounds of a house in Sickelsmere Road at Bury and another leaving the same grounds on 27 August. T h e plantations around this house are of Oak mostly of the Turkey Oak (Quercus Cerris), fully grown and very tall. I have lived in the Bury district all my life and this is the first occasion upon which I have seen White Admirals here.—Argynnis adippe, L. This Butterfly is rarely seen in the Bury district : I observed two on 1 September, 1951, sipping nectar from the Aster flowers in my garden.—H. J. BOREHAM ; 5 Sept.

Micropteryx aruncella, SCOP., PERSISTS—At Covehithe on 12 July, 1897, I found this very distinet species to be a b u n d a n t ; and have noticed it nowhere in the County since that time, when my diary records it " on umbelliferae," which may be erroneous, because on 7 July, 1951, M r . Reginald Burton and I again discovered it commonly inside a wood close to the sea at Covehithe, this time Aying round and settling upon plants of Arctium lappa, though its larvae are said to feed upon Hepatica.—CLAUDE MORLEY. ANOTHER H O R N - T A I L . — A few days ago I caught a Sir ex gigas, L., here ; and found a nearly fully fed larva of Sphinx Ligustri, L., feeding upon Holly.—R. C. ROSS-LEWIN, St. Olaves ; 16 Aug. [An unusual pabulum, but already noted by Allan's " Larval Foodplants" 1949, 20.—Ed.] DIGGER WASP, Gorytes Bicinctus.—I captured a female of this species inside my house, climbing up the window in August 1950.

According to Edward Step, 1946, " This species appears to have been taken in Britain on only a few occasions."—H. J. BOREHAM, 43 Cornfield-road, Bury.

RARITY OF Anagrus niveiscapus, MORL.—From every one of just a hundred eggs of Papilio Machaon, L., that were collected on 23 June, 1951, in the Norfolk locality, whence came that which last year produced this new Mymarid, a normal larva emerged in due course without exception. All were carefully returned to their wild food-plant. This goes to prove that the parasite's suspected scarcity (Trans, vii, 48) is not without due foundation.— CLAUDE MORLEY.

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NORFOLK FLIES.—My wife and I have just spent a week on Scolt Head Island, where we found insects more in evidence than we expected. We were frequently bitten by Tabanus nigrifacies, Gobert, a fly I had not seen before ; I enclose a few unset females and have retained my single male, taken at Statice limonium flowers. Do you find this Cleg on the Suffolk salt marshes ?

[No.—Ed.] You would have been delighted to see the Villa (olim Anthrax,) paniscus, Rossi, Aying commonly on the dunes and visiting flowers of Eryngium maritimum with the leaf-cutter bees Megachile maritima, Kirby. The latter were snipping bits out of privet and bramble leaves on the island. What is the life history of V. paniscus ? Does it, by any chance, parasitize Megachile ? All good wishes to the Society.—E. A. ELLIS, Norwich Museum ; 14 Aug. [Anthrax (Scop., subgenus Villa, Lioy) Paniscus has been bred from an Agrotis sp. (Lepidopteron) pupa in sand at St. Helens in I. Wight; and abroad P. norio, L., from Megachile sp. (Hymenoptera).]—Ed. PARASITE OF Arctia caja.—In the course of July last seven Tachinid puparia, evidently of one species, emerged from Lowestoft larvae of A. caja. But of them by September, no more than a single Tachina rustica, Mg., on 23 July, had become perfected.

They were probably kept too dry.—P. J. BURTON.

Prosena sybarita, FAB.—This interesting Tachinid was found by me sitting commonly on three or four later-removed telegraphposts on the road at St. Felix's School in Reydon on 29 July 1926.

Elsewhere I know it only as of annual occurrence on tree trunks in the Breck around Brandon, which districts are peculiarly sandy.

In east Suffolk none have appeared later, tili 14 July, 1951, when one was sitting on a garden paling close to Reydon post-office.— CLAUDE MORLEY. BATS' PARASITIC DIPTERA.—Some Bats of the Eastgate caves in Bury were examined for ecto parasites on 29 December, 1950, with the following result. On 14 Daubentons no fleas were seen but Nycteribia Latreilli, Lch., was common. On 2 Whiskered was nil. On 8 Natterers were only two Fleas, Nycteridopsylla longiceps, Roths. On 8 Long-eared were only a few Mites.

On a Barbastei caught by River Linnet near Westley with a net on 15 Sept., 1950, were two Fleas, Ischnopsyllus hexatenus, Kol.— O W E N GILBERT, Bangor University.

[All these three parasites are N E W to Suffolk. Those at Trans, vi, 165, are not yet named.—Ed.]

BIRD-PARASITES.—There should be two Flying Ticks from a squeaker Pigeon in the enclosed box : they were alive this afternoon when I caught them off the Bird ; and one nearly went down my neck ! I hope none did so, unobserved by me, though I know some folk like them. They are possibly quite common,

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for I was out, years ago, with a friend when we found some [macropterous Ornithomyia avicularia, L.—Ed.], or some very like these, on young Merlins ; and I was amused to see my friend more interested in the Flying Ticks than he was in the Birds.

I think I have seen the same Ticks on young Swallows [brachypterous Stenopteryx hirundinis, L.—Ed.], which must get severely punctured by such blood suckers on account of their small size.— C . C . T . G I L E S ; 2 3 August.

[Ticks have eight legs and so belong to the Spider Order Arachnida (Trans, iv, 168) ; these bloodsuckers have only six legs and so belong to the Order Insecta ; they are true two-winged Diptera, perhaps best known as the " New Forest Fly," so pestilent in the groin of Horses there.—Ed.] MOLLUSCA.—The shore of the River Orwell above Felixstow Dock to a ruined fortification known as The Dooley, abounds in common Molluscs especially the Periwinkle, Littorina littorea.

Many is the time that I have earned my tea by a few minutes easy picking at low tide ! This spring I have been disappointed : for practically the entire beach to about 50 yards above low-tide mark is smothered with Barnacles, Baianus balanoides. They seem to have had an adverse effect on Periwinkles which are now of very poor quality, except those that are free from Barnacles : these are still fat and succulent.—As a result of your reply to my last letter I have been searching for a Solution to the Periwinkle problem and have been in touch with the Ministry of Fisheries Research Station at Burnham-on-Crouch. They can offer no official Solution although they were aware of B. balanoides' increase on the Essex side of the Orwell. The increase in numbers of these latter is due to pollution and the summer weather during the last two or three years which has favoured their rapid breeding.

On 4 April I weighed one pound of completely encrusted Periwinkles and discovered that of this weight 10J ozs. were Barnacles.

It may be, therefore, that, by having to carry twice their own weight of encrustation t o g e t h e r with t h e rough outer surface so

created, they have experienced difficulty of movement in search of food and deteriorated as a result.—Ä. E. O R F O R D ; 6 April.

A R A R E F I S H . — A specimen of Selache maxima, Cuv., the Basking Shark, just 11 § feet long, and estimated to be about half a ton in weight was brought ashore at Southwold on the morning of 11 September last by two 'longshore fishermen, the brothers Fred and William Mayhew.—They were herring fishing about fifty yards from shore when the Shark became entangled in their nets and there did considerable damage. It was eventually pulled up the beach by a winch. (Local paper, 12 Sept., 1951). [So sparse does this species appear to be upon our coast that, excepting a couple of doubtful examples at Kessingland before 1875 and at Walberswick about 1870, we have had to rely upon the Pagets' record that " several have been taken at different times " (Nat. Hist. of Yarmouth, 1834, p. 17 ; Trans, supra, ii, p. 126).—Ed.]

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Anglers have recently netted five thousand Fish from the moat of unoccupied Rushbrook Hall near Bury St. Edmunds, and transferred them to the Little Ouse. (Daily Telegraph, 19 February, 1951.).

Three fine Perch and a couple of Roach are well set-up in the North End Cafe at Darsham, as we noticed there last July ; but they lack data.—C.M. A Pike, weighing sixteen pounds and three feet two inches in length, was seen and later hooked on a ten-feet rod baited with a live three-inch Roach in the Mill-ponds at Holbrook. It was landed, after a quarter-hour's struggle, by William Minks of Kirby-street, Ipswich, who had previously secured a ten-pound Pike in the Norfolk Broads (Local Paper, 4 October). " TOADS U N D E R G R O U N D . — I was very interested in your article of 3 Feb. " Are Toads Poisonous ? ", but I do not agree that they cannot live any length of time imprisoned. In the 1914-18 war my unit was having an underground mess dug just north of Gaza, and when we had dug down about ten feet we came across a large black Toad in solid ground. I believe I gave it to Major Maurice Portal, and I understand that as it was a very rare [species of] T o a d : he gave it to the Cairo Zoo.—D. G. M. GARNETT, Kelsale Hall, Saxmundham." (The Field, 10 March, 1951). [Surely not Discoglossus pictus, a species of variable colour, common along the Nile ?—Ed.]

BATS.—The 1950 winter frequency of Bats in the Horringer and Bury Eastgate caves was found by Brian Francis and me to be of the same extent as in previous years and as many as possible were ringed. The species found are still Daubenton's, Natterer's, Whiskereds and Long-eared's. Where our ringed Bats go in summer is very much a mystery.—OWEN GILBERT. ANOTHER Meies taxus SLAIN !—In a harvest field near Lawn Farm at Cornard Tye, on 5 September last, the Ipswich daily paper announced on 7th, a boar badger, weighing 28 lb. was shot in the evening by C. Hollocks, senior, who surely is old enough to have known better. Vandal !

FÜR RATS.—Recently two cats caught a ft. long Nutria in a Norwich street, said the London papers on 16 March ; and on 6 September the Ipswich one added that a Coypu [Myotamus coypus, Mol.] nearly 3 ft. long and weighing 14 lb. was shot and killed by a Bungay man on 3rd. He saw the animal late in the evening swimming in the water near Bungay Common and at first mistook it for an Otter. The Coypu is a native of South America, but a number have been found in and around the Fen Country in recent years. [All are escapes from " Nutria farms," where they are bred for their valüable für : see Trans, iii, p. cvi.—Ed.]

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KEEPERS-TREES.—Three Weasels' (Mustela nivalis, L.) skins were noticed spread out to dry nailed to a shed in the Spruce covert

by Blythburgh Wood on 1 July last. And in another wood, at the top of the hills south of the Lark River Valley in north Tuddenham on 17 June were hung up : the Mammals, two Mustela erminea, L., eleven Erinaceus Europceus, L., forty-eight Rattus Norvegicus, Bork. ; Birds : two Corvus monedula, L., two Garrulus glandarius, L., one Pica rustica, Scop. and one Buteo vulgaris, Lch. a goodly concourse among which I was glad to find no Owl.—CLAUDE MORLEY.

WEATHER.—Freak lightning. On July 9, 1950, after a brilliant and hot day in Leiston (shade temp. 85°F.), a thunderstorm passed out to sea south of the town. T h e sky overhead was dappled with little tufts of woolly cloud ; there was a rieh cornelian sunset below the cloud to the west and a coppery coloured rainbow stretched across the sky. A streak of lightning shot up from the south horizon and, on reaching the tufts of cloud overhead, broke up into innumerable branches, leaping from cloud tuft to cloud tuft and spreading over an area that must have approximated a quarter of the sky. More than anything eise, it reminded me of the trunk and spreading branches of a great Oak-tree. I have never seen a similar phenomenon—(Dr.) D. G . GARNETT, 25 Feb., 1951.

What a non-existent spring ! First insect seen was Girstalis tenax on 12 March in Pembroke College garden, and on the same day a tree creeper. G. Rhamni was reported in The Times on 15 March and two were seen at Stowmarket on 3 April. Bad weather has prevented much moth-light; 31 March was almost fruitless, and light at Northfield Wood in Onehouse on 6 April produced only the commonest kinds.—A. E. ASTON, 6 April, 1951.

A WET APRIL.—Rainfall registered during the month of April was :—At Ditchingham : Ist .35, 2nd .08, 3rd .19, 4th .12, 5th .11, 6th .42, 7th .11, 8th .72, 9th .46, lOth .03, 12th .33, 13th .46, 14th .04, 15th .05, 27th .18, 28th .12, 29th .47; total 4.24 in.

Rainfall, April, 1950, was 1.94 in. Rainfall at Trimley during April was 2.43 in., making the total for the first four months 11.58 in., Mr. Roland L. T . Clarkson reports. It was the wettest April since 1939. (Ipswich daily paper, 3 May).

To-day, 9 May, has been just like November here. I had begun to open my bedroom window again, but think that I shall not attempt to do so until " May is o u t ! "—C. C. T . GILES. What an awful spring ! I have seen nothing on my usual fences and the night before last was the first night on which anything came to light, (about eight macro-Moths, all common), but nothing again last night. However I suppose things must begin to look up soon and shortly we shall be complaining of heat and drought.— (Dr.) K. G. BLAIR ; Freshwater, 20 May.

138

OBSERVATIONS

" Everyone complains of the poor collecting season " (Dr. E. A. COCKAYNE,

in

lit.

29

vi).

B L U E - E Y E D G R A S S , Sisyrinchium bermudianum (angustifolium). —I found this (a white variety) last July in a friend's garden in Felixstowe, and now I have come upon S. grandiflorum (?) in another friend's garden in Ipswich. Both species are rampant, and it is not known how they came there. I suspect " parcels from Canada." Can other Botanists say whether my surmise is correct and whether either species is becoming naturalised here ?

S. bermudianum is of particular interest to Geologists, being one of seven or eight plants indigenous to West of Ireland, Greenland and North America. Praeger (Natural Historyof Ireland, 1950) infers a closer land connection in post-glacial times between Ireland and N. America than at present. He gives reasons why these plants, and some insects and small animals, could not have been conveyed by birds or the Gulf Stream. They are all north temperate species. There are 42 species of the genus Sisyrinchium in N. America and nowhere eise in the world except in W. Ireland and W. Scotland, where this single species is found.—J. C. N. WILLIS.