Notes and Observations 10 Part 4

NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS COMMON SHREW (Sorex araneus).

T w o common shrews kept in captivity showed m u c h the same food preference as those reported by D r . Crowcroft in his " Life of the Shrew " (Reinhardt.

1957). Centipedes were obviously very palatable, as were earthworms. Millipedes were completely neglected, as were the wood lice which roll up (pill bugs), ordinary woodlice were eaten faut-de-mieux.

T h e reaction of one to a hibernating queen wasp was interesting. It noticed the wasp at a ränge of about three inches, stopped and then j u m p e d in with a quick snap j u m p i n g back again immediately : it then j u m p e d in and out some 6 - 8 times snapping at the wasp, which was feebly waving its legs at each j u m p in, the whole Performance much like the conventional story of mongoose and snake. Finally it left the wasp and went to its nest, Coming back in a minute or so to make a somewhat half-hearted attack, after which it left the wasp alone completely. T h e wasp was then killed and left in the cage overnight to be found in exactly the same position in the morning, apparently untouched.

CRANBROOK.

BADGER ( M . meles). A young female badger weighing 2 8 i lbs. was killed by a motor car at Rendham, October, 1957."

J.

B.

PEAT.

RED SQUIRREL (Sciurus vulgaris).

A pair of red squirrels have been feeding regularly on the lawn and from my bird table t h r o u g h o u t the winter : one, the larger (? male) is m u c h the tamer and will come to a whistle and take food f r o m the window sill within a few inches of my hand. T h e r e is often a jay near, indeed very often it is a jay which gives warning of the approach of the squirrels and I have several times seen a squirrel carry away a piece of food to bury it in some rough grass or brushwood, the jay watching the while. As soon as the squirrel goes away the jay takes the food. T h e squirrels seem to find their food mainly by scent, r u n n i n g hither and thither, nose to ground, until they find i t ; even if half a dozen tits pecking away at a piece of food would seem to make it obvious to the eye that s o m e food was there, they do not seem to appreciate, after m u c h experience, that feeding tits means food.

(MRS.) A. BARTON, L i t t l e B l a k e n h a m .

HARVEST MOUSE (Micromys minutus).

A female harvest mouse which contained six nearly fĂźll time foetuses was found dead on a path here in September.

DOROTHY CRANBROOK, Snape.

NOTES AND

335

OBSERVATIONS

L O N G T A I L E D F I E L D M O U S E (Apodemus sylvaticus).

In Nov. 1957, I watched a cock pheasant kill and swallow a mouse : f r o m the size and length of tail I am pretty certain that it was a long tailed field mouse.

H . G. BARRETT, Great Glemham.

Y E L L O W N E C K E D M O U S E (Apodemus flavicollis). Has been recorded f r o m potting shed at Mildenhall with A. sylvaticus.

A.

GRANTHAM.

A single specimen in an applestore at Badingham with six A. sylvaticus and one Clethrionomys.

P . H . HARTLEY. I caught my usual batch of 20 - 30 A. flavicollis in an upstairs cupboard this a u t u m n , but none after early December.

D . D O Y L E JONES, Higham.

B A N K V O L E (Clethrionomys glareolus britannicus).

Early in January the striking appearance of freshly barked trunks and branches of eider trees led to the examination of trees in an overgrown sandpit, approximately 130 x 40 yards in area, close to the R. Deben at W i c k h a m Market. Of 140 eider trees of different ages scattered over the bottom and sides of the pit, those actually barked f r o m ground level upwards were as follows:—

21 trees barked f r o m 3 ins - 2 ft.

15

„

„

4

„

„

up to 2 ft. - 4 ft. „

„ 4 i , 5, S i and 7 ft.

T h e " low-barked " trees were scattered sporadically t h r o u g h o u t the pit, high barking occurred mainly in two areas, each at opposite ends of the pit. T h e remaining eiders together with a few ash, oak, wych elm, hawthorn and clumps of blackthorn and hazel trees growing in the pit were undamaged.

Below the damaged trees was a litter of bark, fragments of which seen on top of snow indicated that feeding went on during cold weather. At intervals during February Clethrionomys were trapped at night on trees 4 - 6 yards apart at heights of 2-i and 5£ ft. T h e latter kept in captivity for a few days ignored bark from the base of an eider trunk, nibbled at three year old wood f r o m an undamaged tree and hastily devoured the bark f r o m the three year old wood on which it was captured.

By the beginning of M a r c h barking appeared to have ceased. Eider trees at Flixton on the edge of the Waveney Valley appeared to have been similarly damaged.

(Miss) M .

L.

LYNN

ALLEN,

Wickham Market.

336

NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

VOLE DAMAGE. A branch of white poplar about an inch in diameter at the base was broken off by snow and thrown by a heap of bonfire material. Later it was found that a considerable amount of bark had been removed both from the branch itself and from the side shoots. The tooth marks are of some species of vole but it is impossible to say whether of Field or Bank voles.

G . L. PURSER, Felixstowe.

WATER RAT (Arvicola terrestris).

In early November, 1 9 5 7 , I watched a water rat eating the bark off the branches of a willow which had fallen into the Stour at Wissington. It was sitting on a horizontal branch, at times eating bark directly off the branch on which it sat, at times Standing on its hind legs to tear long slivers off a vertical branch which it then ate holding them in its fore paws. Much of the tree was barked, from branches as thick as a wrist down to twigs little thicker than a pencil. At a visit in late February, 1958, the tree seemed much the same, little if any more bark having been stripped off during the intervening months of hard weather. There was a number of similar willows in the river over a Stretch of about a mile : only one other was barked and that but slightly. The two barked trees were at either end of the whole Stretch of river investigated : water rats were present along the whole Stretch but none of the intervening willows were barked.

CRANBROOK. COYPU (Myocastor coypus). A Coypu was unfortunately killed at Great Glemham in January, 1958. It was found by a wood in a ditch running off the River Aide not, as seems usual, in or near a reed bed. The " Woodbridge Reporter " recorded a coypu killed by a car on the road at night in Dallinghoo, Feb., 1958, and another shot on the Deben at Woodbridge, Dec., 1957.

These animals seem to be spreading over the county : records of their appearance in fresh localities would be of considerable interest.

CRANBROOK.

Note. Another coypu was killed in a stockyard at Blythburgh Lodge, April, 1 9 5 8 . ( M R S . ) A. BROWN. GRASS SNAKES (N. nairix).

During the summer of 1 9 5 7 , I saw four grass snakes here, the first I have seen in 35 years.

D . DOYLE JONES, Higham.

FISH PARASITES. T h e tape worm Triaenophorus lucii (Muller, 1776), kindly identified by Mr. S. Prudhoe, was found in two out of four pike killed from the river Stour at Wissington during the winter, 1957-58. None were found in six pike killed from a pond at Parham, 1955-58. This worm was first recorded in Suffolk under the synonym T. nodulosus Pallas, from a pike caught at Boxted on the Stour (Trans. S.N.S. VIII. ii., p. xlvii, 1953).

CRANBROOK.

337

NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

SPIDERS N E W TO SUFFOLK. The following are recorded by G. H. Locket and A. F. Millidge in Ann. & Mag. Nat. His. Vol. X July, 1957.

Protadia patula (Sim.). Tidal debris, Havergate Island, 21-22 May, 1955.

Drassodes minor (Cambr.). Tidal debris, Havergate Island, 21-22 May, 1955.

Zora silvestris Kulcz. Patches of Erica cinerea by roadside, Iken Heath, 22 May, 1955.

Enoplognatha thoracica (Hahn). Under driftwood on shingle, Orford Beach, 22 May, 1955.

Enoplognatha schaufussi (L.K.). Wet tidal debris, Havergate Island, 22 May, 1955.

Trichopterna thorelli (Westr.). Under Halimione portulacoides saltmarsh, Havergate Island, 22 May, 1955.

Metobactusprominulus (Cambr.).

Tidal debris, Havergate Island, and Orford Beach, 21-22 May, 1955.

Taponcyba praecox (Cambr.). Tidal debris, Havergate Island, 22 May, 1955.

Meioneta saxatilis (Bl.). Tidal debris, Havergate Island, 22 May, 1955.

Lapthyphantes flavipes (Bl.). Under driftwood on shingle, Orford Beach, 22 May, 1955.

Dr. E. A. G. Duffey records Dolomedes plantarius Clerck, a spider new to Britain, at Redgrave Fen. (Trans. Norf. & Nor. Nat. Soc., Vol. 18, pt. 7, 1958.).

BRITISH MILLIPEDES. The Linnean Society has published the l l t h of its Synopses of the British Fauna—British Millipedes (Diplopoda) with keys to the species by J. Gordon Blower—which is sold at the Society's rooms, Burlington House, London, W.I., price 10/6d.

DITTANDER (Lepidium latifolium).

I quote Culpeper's British Herbai (c. 1650) Milner & Sowerby's Edition, 1852:—" It groweth naturally in many parts of this land, as at Cläre in Essex " (? Suffolk). Here its historical background was probably similar to that which I gave for Bury (Trans. Vol. X, pt. II, p. 172).

It would be interesting to know if it is still to be found at Cläre.

H . J.

BOREHAM.

SCOTCH CROCUS (Crocus biflorus Mill.).

For many years late in February or early in March I have been making a sort of annual pilgrimage to Grundisburgh to see the charming little Scotch Crocus which was naturalised in an old pasture near White House Farm.

338

NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

T h e pasture has now been ploughed up and we have lost the only known Suffolk habitat of an interesting flower. It is possible that a few corms may survive round the edges of the field.

This is a delicate little Crocus which is a native of southern Europe, Caucasus and Persia, and is the first species to flower.

T h e perianth segments are 1" - 1 | " long, white tinged with pale lilac inside, the outer ones with three very prominent dark purplish stripes.

This species formerly occurred also on the site of an old garden in Barton Park, near Bury St. Edmunds.

F. W. S I M P S O N .

SOME

O B S E R V A T I O N S ON T H E H A B I T S S O L I T A R Y WA SP Pemphredon

OF

THE

lugubris Latr.

I have observed these small (two specimens, length 11 mm.) black solitary $ $ wasps, excavating their burrows in dead trees and stumps, always beech, at Bury St. Edmunds, Little Saxham and Fornham St. Martin. They usually make an easy entrance through the weathered cracks in the hard surface and commence to excavate upon reaching the slightly softer wood, not rotten, with their strong biting mandibles.

One cell was removed from a nest on August 3rd, 1953. The dimensions were : length 8 mm., breadth 3 mm., depth 3 mm.

This was stored with greenfly (Aphis) species not determined.

All were paralysed and packed so tightly that upon removal none feil apart, the whole appearing in shape like a longish egg.

Another cell was removed from a different nest on September 28th, 1953. This was taken from the same stump but was damaged in the process. This was stored with a larger dark brown species of Aphides Pterochlorus saligna Gmelin, a species which does much damage to poplars and willows, from one of which the wasp had collected and brought its prey by flight, a distance of roughly 700 yards.

T h e homing of these wasps was fairly accurate, and they disappeared with their prey on arrival at the nest.

T h e to and fro time periods at the aphids' rendezvous were of various length, the average being three minutes.

H.

J.

BOREHAM.

NOTES A N D

339

OBSERVATIONS

A M E T H O D of spore dispersal of the Barth Star Geastcr triplex (Geaster is the form approved by Ramsbottom, etc.) was observed in a planlation at Nowton during a misty and drizzly day, the 4th of January, 1957. The fungus was situated under yews and eider, amongst a thick carpet of fallen leaves from the various deciduous trees, the overhanging boughs were over-burdened with drops of water, occasionally a droplet would fall upon the inner endoperidium of the puff-ball which nestled in the centre of the star and as each droplet hit it, it caused a small puff of smoke-like spores to issue from the apical mouth, floating away upon the slow moving air. Further, the inner peridium when in its natural habitat is pliable, and when touched, a slight dent is formed, this soon corrects itself, but in the process of drying, it becomes stiff and paper-like, the dents cannot then be removed.

HENRY

J.

BOREHAM.

A S P E C I M E N of the locally rare Ladybird Anatis ocellata Linn., was found upon the foliage of the Prickly Sowthistle. T h e plant was growing amongst rape (Brassica oleifera Moench) in a field, partly enclosed by plantations of mixed trees at Little Saxham, August 4th, 1957.

HENRY

J.

BOREHAM.

W. H. P A Y N of Härtest Place, Bury St. Edmunds, is engaged on the preparation of a new " Birds of Suffolk ", and would be most grateful for any relevant notes or records covering the period between the publication of Ticehurst's " History " in 1932 and the first Suffolk Bird Report of 1950.

Acknowledgment will be made of all material used.