Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/141

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INSECTS even where they exist in numbers. Several kinds were observed about Yarmouth by the Pagets ; and a few on the coast by the Rev. E. N. Bloomfield and Mr. E. Saunders, but there are no notable records of them in periodical literature. The little earwig, Labia minor, is of general distribution, and is not uncommonly found singly, flying in the sunshine in June, July, and September, as well as upon the damp mud at the margins of ponds, at Bentley, Claydon Bridge, Walton, Wickham Market, Framlingham, Tuddenham Fen, and, Paget says, about Yarmouth.' Our only other earwig is the xh(xtoviS Forficula auricularia,-vfch I have frequently seen flying to the light of street lamps, beneath which, if one did but look, they often congregate in great numbers ; by day they hide away beneath stones, &c., but may occasion- ally be seen assimilating the nectar from Angelica and ragwort flowers ; and upon one occasion my hand received quite a sharp pinch from the forceps, usually supposed only capable of folding away the wings. I have noticed the zx^ty forcipata, Steph., on nettles at Belstead ; and Paget mentions its occurrence on the Yarmouth sandhills. Only two of the four smaller cockroaches have been noticed, of which the first, Phyllodromia germanica, has established a footing in Ipswich houses ; the latter is Ectobia Panzeri, and is common upon the coast sandhills among the marram grass from Felix- stowe to Gorton ; Saunders found it at Lowestoft in August, and the larvae are equally common in June and July. In the Hope Museum at Oxford there is one specimen of this species labelled ' Rev. W. Kirby, lapponica,' which was very likely taken in Suffolk nearly a century ago.^ Paget says the common or household cockroach, Blatta orienta/is, was to be found in most Yarmouth houses in 1834, and it is doubtless only too common throughout the county, though it would be interesting to know if this imported species has yet penetrated to the more rural districts ; we have none at Monk Soham. In June 1894 I took a male which appeared to have been attracted by, and was crawling beneath, an electric light in the middle of Ipswich. B. Australasiae is not infrequently imported in linseed, &c., from abroad. Among the grasshoppers, Mecoitethus gmssus has been found in several Norfolk localities, and appears to be the species referred to by Paget under the name Locusta flavipes, which he says was common in Helton Bog, Suffolk. All the Stenobothri, except S. Uneatus, have been observed here ; S. viridulus is not uncommon in marshy spots about Beccles, Barnby Broad, Southwold, and Tudden- ham Fen. Some doubt must be entertained regarding the record of S. rufipes, which I took at Beccles in 1892, but am now unable to remember upon which side of the Waveney. Bloomfield has found S. elegam in July at Southwold ; it has occurred to me in Tuddenham Fen, and not uncommonly in the marshes at Burgh Castle in August. 5. bicolor and 5. parallelm are abundant everywhere ; one day my attention was called to two males of the former which were apparently courting a single female at Foxhall by the unusually dull note they were both emitting ; and on another occasion at Southwold I found an example on a first-story window, which was a curious circumstance in so low-flying a species. Of Gomphocerus I have only noticed the common G. maculatus, which is widely distributed about Foxhall, Corton sandhills, Southwold, and on the Breck sands at Lakenheath and Brandon. The remainder of the short-horned grasshoppers, with two exceptions, cannot be termed indigenous since they are but casual visitants. Both these excep- tions are members of the genus Tettix ; T. bipunctatus, which appears to be the Acridium bipumtatum, taken commonly about Yarmouth by Paget, is an extremely abundant kind and, unlike most Acri- diodea, hibernates in the perfect state, the larvae being found in August. T. subu/atus is very local in Suffolk, where I have met with it only among the dwarf sallows in the Poor Fen at Tuddenham in June. Of the long-horned grasshoppers, Leptophyes punctatisiima is generally distributed ; it sometimes occurs upon ' sugar ' in the Bentley Woods, and has been observed at Felixstowe, Bramford, Assing- ton, Farnham, Dennington, and Monk Soham. The pretty green Mecomma varium is not rare on oaks and frequently visits sugared trees at Ipswich, Bentley Woods, and Tostock, but is rarely seen in its earlier stages. Throughout the fen and broads districts the lovely chocolate and green Xiphidium dorsale is to be swept from reeds : I first saw it not uncommonly in Barnby and Benacre Broads in August, occasionally upon the flowers of Angelica, and it has subsequently turned up in Tuddenham Fen and the salt marshes about Southwold ; it does not appear to obtain maturity till the end of July, and is quite possibly the Acrida aptera which Paget records as common in damp places in Lound Wood in September. The great green Locusta viridissima is occasionally not uncommon on the banks of the Gipping at Sproughton ; and in the same neighbourhood I have found it licking the stylopods of Angelica sylvestris at Claydon in September ; Mr. Tuck has taken it at Bury St. Edmunds, Mr. Maynard at Orford, and there are specimens in Wheel's collection from Assington. Thamnotrizon cinereus is mainly nocturnal in its habits, and is very frequently attracted by 'sugar' in the Bentley Woods ; it has also occurred at Bungay and Wherstead. Among the ' It was flying in great numbers in my garden at Monk Soham on i May 1908. ' Cf. E>!t. Rec. 1900, p. 98. 103