Notes and Observations 8 Part 4

NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS part of our Journal will be the poorer for the death of Mr. C. C. T. Giles, who kept a watchful eye on the newspapers for any Suffolk nature notes, and who was, we believe, largely responsible for the former " News for Naturalists." We shall miss him too at meetings and excursions—the long journey from Wimbledon rarely kept him away.

THIS

One of his last communications was to send us word of the death of the Rev. R. B. Caton, who had written him a long letter about birds only a few months before he died at the age of 94. Mr. Caton resigned his membership in 1945 or '46, but in the early days of the Society he had been its very active Bird Recorder, 'and contributed to Ticehurst's " Birds of Suffolk."

Both were old Harrovians.

In Miss Chawner we have lost another naturalist of great authority in her subject, at the advanced age of 87.

The rising generation and the middle-aged must come forward to fill the gaps left by naturalists of high distinction and long Service to S.N.S. Just as we go to print we hear that Mr. P. E. Rumbelow has died, an all-round naturalist and constant contributor of zoological and botanical notes to this journal from 1931 to 1943.

Pavlovia rotunda and the femur of a Jurassic Muraenosaurus are reported by Mr. W. H . Podd of Gislingham Brickworks as being found there.

AMMONITE,

PLESIOSAUR,

YELLOW-NECKED MOUSE, Appodemus Ă&#x;avicollis wintoni.

I recently captured a specimen of this mouse in our apple-store.

A. Hadfield, Barham Manor. " U N K N O W N F L O W E R , " as reported in Proceedings of July 18th, 1953, is now known to be Verbena bracteata Lag. et Rodr.

Several of our botanists examined it and were puzzled, so Miss Whiting took it to Kew for identification. We are told that " it is quite the most interesting botanical discovery of the year," and it is recorded at Kew that Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Green were the Anders. See p. 191 for the report from Kew. BADGER. Sir Robert Gooch writes, " A sow badger was unfortunately killed at Benacre in April, 1954."

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NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

233

DISEASED R Y E - G R A S S . — M r . A . E . Garner of the Agricultural Advisory Service sent to Lord Cranbrook a report from Cambridge on October 13th, 1953, about a sample of rye-grass taken from his farm a few days before. " The disease on the ryegrass is Crown Rust (Puccinia coronatä), and is often very troublesome in the autumn. There is nothing much one can do about it, and maybe the herbage will become slightly unpalatable to stock.

There may be a tendency towards potash deficiency, as plants which are deficient are more severely attacked than those less affected. A year or two ago I did see the new playing ground put down at Framlingham, and it was simply covered with Rust, the field appearing quite brown, but in the following spring and subsequent years it has not been seen."

SEPULTARIA S U M N E R I (Brk.) Che. A specimen of this family was found 23rd January, 1954, on a roadside bank, Horsecroft Road, Bury St. Edmunds, under overhanging boughs of a Cedar Tree, Cedrus Libani. It was identified at Kew by Dr. R. W. G. Dennis. Kew reports " When laying your specimen in to the herbarium I noted we had a previous collection of S. sumneri from a lawn near a large cedar, St. Nicholas, Bury St. Edmunds, 13.3.1920," no collector stated. He says further that it was first described from a lawn under cedars at Wimbledon. This mature specimen was in its entirety an empty cup, roughly about the size and shape of the cup of a flower of the Canterbury Bell, Campanula medium, the top edge being split into segments of various shapes and sizes each segment either squared or pointed at the top, not rounded and recurved as are the petals of the Canterbury Bell. The outside of the cup was a dark chestnut brown, and covered with hairs; the inside was very smooth and of a dull or dirty pearl appearance. The whole of the fungus was almost completely buried in the soil, only the tips of the segments were shown above ground, no root mycelium could be seen at the base of the cup when lifted out of the soil. They are at first buried in the soil, and when they emerge, split into segments.

Described in Mushrooms and Toadstools, by John Ramsbottom.

Collins 1953. Page 88. Henry J. Boreham.

E M P E R O R M O T H . — I have observed on several occasions in recent years—and again on Saturday, May 8th—when I have been tidying up a bed of Romneya Coulteri (which I usually do early in May) that I have disturbed an Emperor Moth from amongst the young growth. The Moths have always been slow in taking off from the ground and have flapped their wings for an appreciable time as if drying and stretching them prior to a first flight. They give every appearance of being newly hatched. They are invariably males and by their action give

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one an excellent opportunity of observing them closely. I have never seen an Emperor Moth in any other part of my garden or elsewhere on my land, though there is a good deal of heather about. I know that this Moth pupates in a thick cocoon in heather and therefore I am rather puzzled why they should have been on the ground at this time of the year, giving an appearance of having just come out of the chrysalis. Is it conceivable that the males have a different habit of pupating from the females ?

Also is it known that they are in the habit of feeding on the Romneya ? Perhaps you can throw light on the matter. W. B. L. Barrington.

[Many of the large moths vibrate their wings for some time before flight in order to raise their body temperature sufficiently for them to be able to maintain flight. The males of the Emperor Moth are day-fliers and are attracted to the female by scent from a considerable distance. The females fly very little and then usually only at night. As far as is known there is no difference between the male and female pupating habits. The larvae feed on many plants other than heather, but Romneya Coulteri has has not been recorded.

Both males and females pupate in the autumn and spend the winter in the pupal State. S.B.] CYSTICERCUS BOVIS.—The heads of two bullocks were found to be affected with Cysticercus bovis, which is the cystic stage in the life-cycle of Taenia S.aginata (the tape worm in humans).

This condition was extremely rare in home-killed cattle before the war, though widespread on the Continent and in tropical countries, and its re-introduction to this country is thought to have been by prisoners of war, foreign troop& and workers, and British workers who have returned from military Service overseas, excreting Proglottides (which are segments of the tape worm containing the ova) and this in turn contaminating pastures. The ova develop to the cystic stage in certain muscles of cattle grazing on such contaminated pastures, and can if uncooked or partially cooked meat containing these cysts is eaten be transmitted to humans, in whose intestines the scolex is released to develop into the mature tape worm. As such it may cause serious digestive disturbances, and also the life-cycle of the worm commences again.

T h e cysts vary in size from a millet seed to a pea, and are usually few in number, and being embedded in muscular tissue are not always easily detected. The affected parts are condemned, and unless a generalized condition is found, indicated by numerous or a widespread location of cysts, the remainder of the carcase is put into cold stĂśre for a period, by which process any undiscovered cysts are rendered inoccuous.

Thorough cooking of course also destroys Cysticercus bovis. J. S. Fisher, Sanitary Inspector, Council Offices, Stowmarket.

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235

COYPU. It was reported in E.A.D.T. of February 9th, 1954, that a coypu had been shot and killed the previous day at Bourne Park, Ipswich, by Mr. Sidney Wade, a park keeper. [This animal is now well established in Norfolk and down the Waveney Valley, but this is the first report from the Ipswich district. See Transactions Vol. VIII, Part I, 1952, Page 1. C.].

W H I T E RAT. (from E.A.D.T., February 16th, 1954). While going round the farm on Tuesday night, my dog caught a fullgrown all white rat, and I wondered if any of your readers have had a similar experience, or if they could explain this rarity.

S. A. Gardiner, Mill Farm, Finningham.

M I N K at Aldringham.

Mr. C. H. Lay reports the capture of a Mink at Aldringham. This animal must have been an escape or a descendant of an escape from a fĂźr farm. Though there has been considerable change by domestication these animals are all descended from the American Mink Mustela vison.