FROSTED
YELLOW
THE following letter appeared in the Hast Anglian Daily Times of Sept. 27th, 1954. : Sir,—I was interested to read Mr. F. W. Simpson's remarks to members of the Ipswich and District Natural History Society on the subject of that one-time famous Suffolk moth limbaria— otherwise the Frosted Yellow, which in their 1937 catalogue lepidopterists of the Suffolk Naturalists' Society stated was extinct—" its last British home was in Suffolk," and wondered if anyone had seen an example since. It feil to my lot to see one in the interior of Suffolk this year, and I was considerably elated at the privilege. It was Aying in the sun, hovering over a hedge which possibly concealed a mate, and settled for a moment, wings over back, but then made off, and the thought Struck me that its sun-loving habits probably contributed largely to its decline, for there are few sun-loving moths, and of these none like it, so that it attracts attention at once. The date was June 5th. The six examples in my collection evidently came from the Needham district and have been dead a long while, as have also their captors, I fear. ERNEST T .
GOLDSMITH.
58 Fair Close, Beccles.
A RARE PYRALID, Pyrausta nubilalis Hubn. As far as I know, only two specimens of this insect have so far been recorded for Suffolk; the first taken some fifty years ago by Mr. A. E. Gibbs at Felixstowe and another in 1948 by Mr. P. J. Burton, at Lowestoft, both females. On August 3rd, my grandson, Alfred Waller, took a male in perfect condition, in his light trap at Waldringfield Rectory. First noticed in the Isle of Wight in 1848, it has been a rare and casual immigrant up to the early thirties, since when it has been taken more or less freely in Essex and some of the southern counties. English weather does not seem conducive to the insect establishing itself permanently for any length of time. B. P. Beirne, in his excellent little treatise on British Pyralid and Plume Moths