Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/167

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INSECTS the north-west, and one was positively caught there (and most laudably liberated) so recently a& IQOI; but in the other districts it is doubtful whether the single records refer to anything more than mere escapes, such as is mentioned in The East Anglian Daily Times, 1 6 and 20 August 1900. Leucophasia sinapis has not been seen for over twenty years, and appears to have become extinct ; as also curiously enough has Satyrus aegeria, which used to be common ; and Pieris crataegi is recorded, but probably in error, by Curtis. The Bath White {Pieris daplidice) was taken at Felixstowe and Aldeburgh in 1872, but has not been since seen. Our two species of Colias are, as elsewhere^ periodical, though C. edusa may be noted singly in most autumns ; its variety helice being much rarer. Argynnis Lathonia has occurred at long intervals at such widely-spread localities as Aldeburgh, Ipswich, Lavenham, Icklingham, Stoke-by-Nayland, and Bradwell ; its last appearance being in 1866. A. Niobe, var. eris, has once occurred at Monk Park Wood in 1879, about six miles south of Bury St. Edmunds; it is the only British specimen of this insect.^ Melitaea artemis has been found at Stowmarket, Beccles, and various places in the north-west, where it is still to be met with, though apparently becoming very local ; Mr. Wratislaw says in the early numbers of the Entomologist it was formerly common there ; M. athalia is only doubtfully indigenous in the county. Vanessa c-album is very rare, but has been taken at Bury, Needham, and Bungay, while V. antiopa, though usually very rare, has been taken in many places; it was almost common in 1872. The lovely White Admiral occurs annually in several of our woods, and in some years most horrible slaughter of this innocent is made, the collectors (who cannot be called entomologists) gleefully bring one or even two hundred specimens home at a time ; but the grand Purple Emperor is still very much rarer, and has hardly been seen of late, though recorded from around Ipswich, Beccles, Stowmarket, and Sudbury. Arge galathea is extinct, though it was found at Needham before 1850; but Satyrus semele abounds on all our heaths with all its commoner congeners. Thecla ruhi and T . quercus are very common, and T. w-album is frequently met with in the south-east ; T . pruni was once taken at Brandeston by the Rev. J. Green, and T. betulae has occurred at Ipswich, Saxham, and Raydon, but is very rare. The rarest of all butterflies, the long-extinct Large Copper, is said by Stephens to have at one time occurred on the coast at Benacre Broad, but this was a record of the 'thirties. All the common Blues occur sparingly ; Lycaena corydon is, owing to the scarcity of chalk, by no means common ; L. acts was taken in 1 861 at Foxhall, and L. adonis is only doubtfully SufFolcian, though in Miss Jermyns's curious Butterfly Collector's Fade Mecum^ Moulton and Dalham are instanced as localities for the ' Clifton Blue ' ; it has, however, been taken at Newmarket, but this may have been in Cambridgeshire. L. alsus and Hesperia lineola are very rare, the former being confined to the neighbourhood of Newmarket, and the latter hitherto found only at Bures ; but Nemeobius lucina is by no means uncommon in woods at Bentley, Raydon, Needham, and Freston. Altogether we have fifty-eight out of the sixty-six British butterflies, and of the remainder only one,. Hesperia paniscus, is at all likely to be found here. All the hawk-moths, too, have been taken in the county, which is especially celebrated as the British headquarters of Sphinx pinastri, first found near Waldringfield in 1875, since which time its range has gradually spread to Ipswich, Aldeburgh, Campsey Ash, Saxmundham, Aldringham, and Southwold ; it is now firmly established, and specimens have been taken almost every year, and the larva has even been found feeding upon the Cedar of Lebanon. S. convolvuli is periodically com- mon, and the coast sands have produced Deilephila euphorbiae, though this species has never been adequately sought after in Suffolk. The rare C. celerio has turned up singly at Stowmarket, Beccles, Newmarket, Orford, Ipswich, &c., and the very rare C. nerii was taken in Southtown, Yarmouth, in August 1872, by the Rev. J. W. Colville. The two species of Macroglossa, fusiformis and bombiliformis, are scarce, especially the latter. Among the clear-wings, Sesia myopiaeformis is very local, S, culiciformis not uncommon, S. formiciformis was once found freely at Stoke-by-Nayland ; S. ichneumoniformis occurred among flowers near Norton Wood to Tuck in July 1899 ; S. cynipiformis and S. hemheciformis are local ; and S. tipuliformis, with S. apiformis, common, the last being so abundant that the aspens throughout the county bear marks of their depredations. The curious little Limacodes testudo is found at Eaton, Playford, and Beccles ; about Ipswich its larvae are common on oak in September and October. Procris statices and Zygaena trifolii are not uncommon in the broads of the north-east, but Z. lonicerae is very rare. Nola cuculatella and iV. confusalis are common ; but N. strigula is rare, though it has been taken by several collectors at the Bentley Woods and at Felixstowe ; N. centonalis was found at Hemley in 1904. Lithosia muscerda, found elsewhere only in Norfolk, is recorded from Lakenheath in Mr. Eedle's Fenland, and was taken among alders in Barnby Broad in August 1898 by the writer; L. aureola, L. quadra, and L. rubricollis are all more or less rare in Suffolk ; and L. helvola is doubtfully also recorded. The interesting Deiopeia pulchella has been taken singly at Rougham, Finborough, Rickinghall, Foxhall, Aldeburgh, Ipswich, and was last turned up by Mr. Mera at Felixstowe in June 1892 ; and Callimorpha dominula is very ' Cf. Ent. Mo. Mag. 1900, pp. 41, 89. Published at Ipswich in 1827. 1 129 17