Notes on Entomology

NOTES ON LYONETIID

ENTOMOLOGY

NEW

TO

b y ALISDAIR

SUFFOLK

ASTON

AT Stowmarket house light on 22nd August, 1958, I took a small white moth which Mr. S. Wakely has determined as Opostega crepusculella, Zell.

T h e species is to be distinguished from O. salaciella, Treits., which it slightly resembles, by the presence of a black apical dot and a dark streak from the middle of the costa. Little is known about the early stages but both Meyrick and L. T . Ford consider it to feed on Mentha palustris.

On this account I. R. P. Heslop named it the " Mint Bentwing " . T h e Genus Opostega represents the extreme of neural degeneration and is of very doubtful origin. More species are known from Australia than elsewhere. Meyrick claims crepusculella to be local up to D u r h a m and this encouraged Mr. Morley to forecast its occurrence here in the 1937 M o t h Memoir. T h e Lyonetiidae are small and hard to collect but we now have 17 of the British 35.

Crepusculella is species no. 1554 (1397a) on the Suffolk list. Abroad it ranges from Central and Southern Europe to Asia Minor and Palestine.

Possible Phthorimaea

viscariella,

Staint.

In 1950 at Stowmarket, I took a small dark moth that may be Phthorimaea viscariella, but the specimen is poor and the record needs confirmation. T h e larva feeds in spun central shoots of Red and White Campion and of Lychnis viscaria, the Red German Catchfly. It pupates in rubbish on the ground and according to Mr. L. T . Ford hides in hollow stems when not feeding. It is know to Heslop as the Lychnis Groundling, and would be species no. 1108a on the Suffolk List. Meyrick's comment must give one pause to record it as a certainty. " York to the Clyde, local."

Abroad it is possibly a native of Hungary.

Two

M O T H S N E W TO. SUFFOLK.

Rlastobasidae at Aldeburgh On August 8th, M r . Chipperfield and I left the Suffolk N a t uralists' Meeting at Little Glemham and continued to Staverton Forest via Aldeburgh where we were pleased to accept the kind invitation of M r . and Mrs. Crosby to leave a moth-light at the house which most impressively overlooks estuarine habitats and sandy Stretches with odd forest trees. T h e atmosphere of Breck was emphasised by Stone Curlew which we were invited to watch from our hosts' hide. Eventually we left for Staverton where we observed only 28 species, including varia, monacha and Euxanthis angustana.

Dreading a coastal fog, we returned to Aldeburgh at 1 a.m. to find a rare assembly of moths and our hosts watching

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the zooming, crawling, brightly-lit loggia. The macros included six albipuncta, dissoluta, ochroleuca, scabriuscula Thefinalnumber of species was exactly 101.

The Society's Honorary Auditor was picking out insects with a torch at the side window and presently I recognised, with his help, a specimen of Blastobasis lignea, Wals., New to Suffo more specimens followed, mostly in reasonable condition. Unfortunately the same could not be said for the one specimen of Blastobasis decolorella, Wollaston, which I immediately r a few minutes later. No more came although we worked hard tili 4 a.m., went inside for a welcome breakfast and left the coa just before dawn.

The Blastobasidae are not indigenous to Brtiain. Blastobasi lignea, Wals., (sarcophaga, Meyr.), was introduced early this Century and is quite frequent in London where I have taken it at Hampstead and at Duhvich. It is single-brooded, usually appearing in August, having fed on Yew, on decaying leaves, a on Picea abies. It has spread northwards and Mr. Wakely has heard of it from the Lake District. My Dulwich records this year were on July 21st and 25th, Heslop calls it " Furness Dowd and it is Suffolk's 1555th lepidopteron (FC 1145a). Superficially the species closely resembles Endrosis sarcitrella Schiff.), the White-collared Clothes.

Blastobasis decolorella, Wollaston, is a specics of pa interest to me as it wasfirstfound in Britain in 1946 by Mr. Wak who took it on a fence in Dulwich. Consequently it was named " Wakely's Dowd " by Heslop. My present house in Dulwich Vilage is in the centre of its British stronghold and it is to be fou at rest on fences commonly in the neighbourhood. I have seen it from Herne Hill, through Dulwich, almost to Crystal Palace in Dulwich Woods. Most specimens are pale ochreous but some are liberally sprinkled with brown and occasionally have a blackis mark on the dorsum. It is double-brooded normally and this year I saw individuals of the first brood on May 3Ist, June Ist 13th, 16th, 20th (3 specimens), 27th, 29th, July 2nd, 7th, 24th.

The Dulwich second brood was noted from September 20th to October 17th. The Aldeburgh specimen feil between these two and was a latefirstbrood example.

As a larva it feeds on fallen and decaying leaves, dead inse and other rubbish in a thick silken tube. The insect was obvious imported and most probably from the Madeira Islands, where it is known. It is not a species found on the northern sea-boar of Europe, unless it lacks Observation there.

Suffolk is to date its most northerly home and it should be add as species no. 1556 (1145b) to the Suffolk list. In 1937 Mr. Morl mentioned two imported Blastobasinae, presumably lignea and

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Auximobasis normalis, Meyr., the Docks Dowd. Since 1937 two more have been added to the British list: decolorella and Blastobasis phycidella, Zell., Fassnidge's Dowd. We are grateful to Mr, and Mrs. Crosby for our Observation of half the (British Blastobasidae) in Suffolk, and to Messrs. Wakely and J. D. Bradley for determining the decolorella.

MELANISM IN THE SCALLOPED

IIAZ:L.

(Gonodontis bidentata, Clerck).

The Scalloped Hazel is one of the moths that exhibits melanism, a feature in which the normal ground colour of the wings is turned darker or completely black. Some authors consider that the black varieties have increased since the Industrial Revolution and that sooty walls made dusky wings an advantage in Camouflage from birds. Other writers claim that the melanic varieties are genetically dominant. A third group claim that smoke-polluted food has done something to alter the species.

It was decided last Spring, and this one, to make a count of normal specimens against melanics by searching hedges after dark in the Dulwich area, where a melanic variety occurs. A similar count was made of specimens attracted to light, with the intention of seeing whether the black coloration had been an advantage to specimens on the hedges.

If the incidence of melanics at light was much higher, then it was thought reasonable to assume that melanics had escaped notice on hedges, as it had been proved in the case of the Peppered Moth at Oxford, that melanics were not more susceptible to attraction by light.

Experience of the species is summarised below :— Various typss of light.

Hedges Normal 1946 1957 1958 1958 1959 1959

Onehouse, Sfk. Dulwich Dulwich Stowmarket, Sfk. Dulwich Dulwich woods

2 0 32 0 71 1

Melanic 0 0 2 0 1 0

Normal 0 1 4 3 26 0

Melanic 0 0 0 0 8 0

Only two samples are large enough to consider, those for Dulwich 1958 and 1959, but insuffbient examples came to light in 1958. In 1959, however, the ratio of melanic/normal on Dulwich hedges was 1 : 71 as against approximately 1 : 3 at light. T h i s difference is significant and would seem to prove the advantage

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of blackness to melanics. Unfortunately, however, the small size of the sample of only two populations 300 yards apart, those of the hedges and of the house light, may invalidate the above figures. The figures may only mean that a melanic strain was strong near the house, but sparse in the hedges 300 yards away.

One could not be sure that any locality was representative of the local, or national, population.

If, however, it be granted that there is some small advantage visually to melanics, then inspection of the habitat suggests that the reason for this is more likely to be darkly-creosoted fences than any industrial pollution. It would be interesting to know whether melanism in any way coincided in date of origin with the supplanting of garden walls by creosoted fences.

It may be noticed that both the SufTolk samples provided no melanics but that the late Mr. E. W. Platten possessed a black specimen that may have been caught in Suffolk. T h e Dulwich form noted in the experiment often approached South's illustration of ab. nigra, Prout, which has long been found on the mosses of Lancashire, and in Yorkshire. In Dulwich both male and female melanics were noted but on no occasion was either partner of a copulating pair a melanic. As is usual with moths the female in such pairs was always uppermost, still in the position assumed after emergence.

This melanic form is on the increase, for this year it was noted, for the first time, by Mr. Goater at Mill Hill. It would be interesting to have figures for its incidence in Suffolk or for the frequency of any other melanic. I am grateful to Dr. Kettlewell, of the Council for Nature for the interest he has taken and to " News for Naturalists " for bringing the matter to my attention.

T I N Y FLY N E W TO SUFFOLK.

T h a t careful dipterist Mr. L. Parmenter of the London Natural History Society is indeed " oculatissimus ", as somebody would say, for he was able to observe males of the Dolichopodid fly (Teuchophorus signatus, Zett.), in Dodnash Wood, on July 25th, 1953 (see Ent. Mon. Mag.). The insect measures only 1.5 2.0 mm., and must be very difficult to observe.

It is new to Suffolk and should be added at Trans, supra Vol. X, part 1, 1956, p. 59 at foot before T. monocanthus, Lw. This brings the Suffolk total to 153 species out of a British total of over 250. The figure of 153 includes Porpliyrops crassipes, Meig., taken at Assington on May 15th, 1928 and omitted from our revision of Dolichopodidae, Trans, supra Vol. X, part 1, p. 54, beforeP.patula, Radd.

NOTES ON ENTOMOLOGY COASTAL GRASSHOPPER H O P S

269

INLAND.

Mr. R. M. Payne made an interesting comment in the Ent. mon. Mag. 95, p. 48, where he stated that he usually associated Chorthippus albomarginatus, Deg., (elegans, Charp.) with maritime localities but that the species was present in some numbers on Foxhole and Tuddenham Heaths on September 6th, 1958. The Suffolk Orthoptera are listed at Vol. I, part 2, p. 97, where this short-horned grasshopper is noted from Dunwich, Southwold and North Suffolk frcm Burgh Castle to Tuddenham Fen on the Breck, where many maritime insects are known.

T H R E E BUGS N E W TO

SUFFOLK.

Dr. A. M. Massee has discovered three species of Hemiptera new to the county and it seems worth while to record his observations in our Transactions. Firstly, he saw several specimens of the local bug Trapezonotus dispar, Stal., (Hemiptera : Lygaeidae) running on the ground amongst pine-needles under a Scots Pine at Barton Mills during August 1955 (Ent. mon. Mag. 1955). Dispar had been noted from eight counties but this was the first record from the Eastern Counties. Secondly, he caught a specimen of the rare Agnocoris leclairei, Wag., (Lygus rubicundus, Fall.), a Mirid bug, by beating Scots Pine at Barton Mills during August, 1952 (Ent. mon. Mag.). Previous records were from Westmorland, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire where the first capture took place in 1913. Possible host-plants include Alnus, Corylus, Prunus, Salix, and Quercus but imagines have been captured by sweeping mixed herbage. The Barton Mills specimen may have gone to the pine for hibernation. Thirdly three females of Nabis pseudoferus, Remane (Hemiptera : Nabidae) were found at the roots of grass on the sand dunes at Lowestoft. Pseudoferus was first recorded as British in September 1954 by Dr. Southwood who took it at Ham Street Wood, Kent. It has also been taken

by Dr. Massee at Thetford Chase, Norfolk (Ent. mon. Mag. 94, p. 137). The Suffolk Hemiptera were listed by Claude Morley in 1905 and supplemented during 1933 in S.N.S. Trans. Vol. 2, part 2, p. 134.

FLATFORD B U G N E W TO SUFFOLK.

During 1953 Miss J. Walker took a female Eurygaster testudinarius, Geoff., (Hemiptera : Pentatomidae) while sweeping mixed Vegetation in a small copse near Flatford Mill (Ent. mon. Mag. 90, p. 48). T h e specimen was identified by Dr. Southwood and the species had not been found previously in either Suffolk or Essex.

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BEETLE N E W TO BRITAIN FROM

SUFFOLK.

An event of considerable importance took place on the East coast of Suffolk in mid-June 1956, when Mr. Daltry, who was staying at Westleton, took a pair on 15th, and another on 23rd of Philonthus dimidiatipennis, Er., (Coleoptera : Staphylinidae). T h e beetles were found by treading cracked mud by the sides of dykes in the brackish marshes between Dunwich and Walberswick.

T h e specimens of this species new to Britain were determined by the Reverend C. E. Tottenham who said that the species had been recorded from the Mediterranean and South Russia. It differs from all other British Philonthus by having the basal third of the red elytra black, with the apical margin of the black area sharply defined by a symmetrically undulating line rather deeply concave near the middle of each elytron. The remainder of the body is black. T h e species comes at the end of the genus and is not large, 5.5 - 6 mm.

Specimens were noted at the locality in some numbers during July 1957. The Nature Conservancy were pleased to hear from this Society of this distinguished Russian visitor. (see Ent. mon. Mag 94, p. 66).

1 Aysgarth Road, Dulwich Village, S.E.21.

NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS M O L E (Talpa europaea). A series of moles kept in captivity during the summer of 1959 almost invariably ate worms from the head end, holding their victim between the fore feet and pulling it towards them as they ate, at the same time pushing away with the fore feet massaging the worm from front to rear and expelling all the earthy contents of the worm's stomach out throughtheanus.

T h i s " pushing and massaging " action also cleaned any earth from off the outside of the worm so producing a meal " grit free " externally and internally. One mole, caught in September and about ยง grown weighing 75 grammes, became exceedingly tarne would remain in an outstretched palm withoutattemptingtoescape for long periods, taking, with great delicacy and without biting even by mistake the hand that fed it, blow fly maggots and pupae, meal worms, earth worms, etc. from between the finger and thumb