N O T E S O N T H E S U F F O L K LIST OF C O L E O P T E R A : 5 ISCHNODES SANGUINICOLLIS (PZ). ( E L A T E R I D A E ) IN S U F F O L K DAVID R .
NASH
Ischnodes sanguinicollis (Pz.) is one of our most distinctive click beetles; the elytra are shinging black and the thorax is bright red. It is usually very local and rare in this country and Mendel (1988) in his provisional atlas of the click beetles of the British Isles records it from only 18 counties. Ischnodes was first taken in Suffolk in 1896 by Fred Fox who found three specimens in his home parish of Coddenham (Morley, 1899). No further examples of the beetle were reported from the county until the capture by Mr. Jim Burton in June, 1950 of a Single male at Fritton Warren with 'the thorax unusually dull red' (Morley, 1950). This specimen is in Claude Morley's collection at Ipswich Museum but examination proves it to be only a somewhat immature example of Melanotus erythropus (L.) (teste D.R.N./ H.M.). The only other putative Suffolk record of which I am aware, isthat of B. J. MacNulty who, on May 28th, 1970, exhibited specimens taken at Kennet (sie) from a poplar with a rotten interior (MacNulty, 1970). The village of Kennett, however, lies to the west of the river bearing the same name and is wholly within the county of Cambridgeshire. Macnulty (in lit.) has recently confirmed that his record should be assigned to Cambridgeshire. The following records can now be added to the captures listed above: June 9th, 1963 - one example taken by C. S. Barham as it flew onto a dead tree trunk at Friday Street, Rendlesham (TM3050); April 14th, 1 9 8 0 - f o u r adults and several larvae sieved by myself from the interior of a wet, soggy elm stump on the Shrubland Estate, Coddenham (TM1252). The tree had been felled a few days earlier so the interior had only recently been exposed. On April 24th, 1981 a Single adult and larva were sieved from another similar elm stump close to that which had yielded the first examples. No other specimens were seen at the site until April lOth, 1985 when one was found under a bracket fungus on a burnt elm trunk and a second in the damp, earthy interior of another different elm stump. These Coddenham captures provide interesting confirmation of Fox's nineteenth Century record for the parish. Leseigneur (1972) in his monograph of the Elateridae of France and Corsica notes Ischnodes from only beech and oak trunks. Fowler (1890) records the beetle from 'rotten elm, oak, maple etc.'. I have not undertaken a detailed search of the literature but, as far as I can recall, more specimens seem to be recorded from elm in this country than from any other species of tree - leaving aside, of course, captures at blossom such as hawthorn. Fowler's choice of elm to head his list of trees would also seem to support this view. Acknowledgements I thank Lord de Saumarez for allowing me to study on the Shrubland Estate, Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 25
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Mr. H. Mendel for passing on details of his correspondence with Dr. B. J. MacNulty and Mr. C. Barham for allowing me to include his unpublished record. References Fowler, W. W. (1890). The Coleoptera of the British Islands, 4, 92. Reeve and Co. Leseigneur, L. (1972). Coleopteres Elateridae de lafaune de France continentale et de Corse. Supplement au Bulletin mensuel de la Societe Linneenne de Lyon, 32-35. MacNulty, B. J. (1970). Exhibition of specimens of Ischnodes from Kennet. Proc. Brit. ent. nat. Hist. Soc., 3, 123. Mendel, H. (1988). Provisional Atlas of the Click Beetles (Coleoptera: Elateroidea) of the British Isles. Biological Records Centre. Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, Monks Wood Experimental Station, Huntingdon. Morley, C. (1899). The Coleoptera of Suffolk, 68. Morley, C. (1950). Ischnodes sanguinicollis, Pz. Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc., 7, 48. David R. Nash, 266 Colchester Road, Lawford, Essex, C 0 1 1 2 B U
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