A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK kinds about Lowestoft, which are mentioned in his AniUata of the British Islands. From this mass of material I was enabled to draw up in 1899, *"/ ' Aculeata of Suffolk,' * and in it to enumerate 282 species out of a total of 374 in all Britain ; and yet a few of the commoner fossors had not been met with. Since that time only thirteen species, of which four were for the first time known to inhabit Britain, have been added, bringing the total to 295 different kinds — the longest county list, I believe, in England, with perhaps one exception. It will, consequently, be unnecessary in the following summary to refer to the insects in detail, and I shall indicate only those kinds which are of special interest, of historical note, or individual rarity. Regarding the ants, we find in the Proceedings of the Entomological Society, 1834, xxv, that Formica rufa is sometimes quite troublesome in the county, but it has now become rare and very local. Smith, in his Fossorial Hymenoptera tells us that Kirby sent Formica emarginata to Latreille, though no example of it existed in the former's collection. Smith further states * that a female, F. brunnea, the only British specimen, had been captured on the coast at Pakefield ; this was probably referable to Lasius umbratus. He also once took the very rare Myrmecina Latreillei at Southwold in 1859. Stenamma Westwoodi has been found in a bees' nest at Tostock and in moss in the Bentley Woods ; and the interesting little Monomorium Pharaonis, always found in shops and houses, where it is imported in foreign produce, once occurred to me by sweeping a hedge-bottom at Wherstead, at least a mile from any shop, &c. Mutilla europaea used to be found at Southwold and upon Lound Heathjwhich I am informed is now reduced to a very small area, practically only a clay-pit, and few know it by its old name. In the Entomological Annual, 1866, Smith records the rare Methoca Ichneu- monoides from Suffolk ; and Tiphia femorata is everywhere abundant in the Breck district upon Angelica and carrot flowers in August, as well as upon the coast. The fourth British specimen of Pompilus unicolor was captured at Pakefield in 1858 ; and Perkins has turned up P. bicolor, niger, and spissus about Brandon. Salius obtusiventris has been found at Needham Market and Tostock, whence Tuck sent me a single male, probably the first of that sex noticed in Britain, in July 1900. Kirby, in erecting the genus, records Ammophila sabulosa, hirsuta, and lutaria, which have all been since found here, from Suffolk. Spilomena troglodytes is not uncommon about Brandon ; and in an Ipswich garden I have several times taken Stigmus Sohkyi among Aphides upon Heracleum, which fact appears to clear up the doubt expressed by Saunders as to its larva's pabulum. Pem- phredon JVesmaeli and P. morio, till lately one of our very rarest British species, have both been found by Tuck at Tostock ; the latter has also occurred to him at Rougham in August, and locally to Perkins in the Breck. Curtis records Mimesa atra from Suffolk ; there are several in Kirby 's collection, and Smith once saw it on a flower at Lowestoft. The rare Didineis lunicornis has been found by Smith at Carlton Wood, by Piffard near Felixstowe, and I once met with a male in the act of sucking honey from Smyrnium Olusatrum on the cliffs there in August. The interesting genus Crabro is represented by twenty-three species, of which C. tibialis is certainly uncommon at Stanstead Wood, Monk Soham, and Alderton ; C. capitosus has been bred from bramble stems at Ipswich by Rothney ; C. varius, anxius, and JFesmaeli are uncommon ; Tuck says C. litur- atus is rare at Tostock, and I have only once detected it in the vicinity of Ipswich. Hornets, though occasionally observed in our woods, are not unpleasantly common in Suffolk, and the social wasps do not occur with the frequency of the southern counties ; they are sometimes attracted into street lamps by the flies which have come to the light at night ; the males of Vespa rufa may sometimes be freely found upon Angelica flowers, and Mr. Tuck has observed nests of V. sylvestris built, like a martin's, beneath house eaves in August. The rare F. norvegica has been noticed nesting at Aldeburgh, Tostock, and twice at Lowestoft in recent years ; it constructs nests in trees and bushes, often in gardens, of the size of a cricket ball. Of the Odyneri, the usually common O. splnipes is certainly rare here, having been found only about Brandon, and quite recently about Copdock, by the late Rev. J. H. Hocking ; O. pictus is very local ; O. trimarginatus is con- fined to the coast (it has not occurred at Tostock) ; and the handsome O. antilope is uncommon about Bury St. Edmunds and in the Breck district. To turn to the bees, we find 164 kinds recorded out of a British total of about 204. Of Colletes, we cannot claim C. cunicularia, which seems to be nearly confined to the Liverpool and Chester districts ; C. marginata, Perkins says, is not uncommon on the Breck sands. Prosopis pictipes is found in the same district and has once occurred at Tostock to Tuck, who has also noticed Sphecodes longulus in May at Drinkstone. S. rubicundus was first brought forward as British in 1895, and during the following year it was found to be not uncommon at Tostock by Tuck ; it has also been taken about Ipswich by Hocking and myself. Only five localities appear to be known for Halictus quadricinctus, one of which is Little Blakenham in Suffolk, as is indicated in a MS. note in Kirby's interleaved copy of his Monographia. His record of H. xanthopus from Barham has recently been confirmed by the capture of examples at Brandon, Tostock, and Copdock ; but
- See The Hymenoptera of Suff. pt. i. ' Op. cit. 224.
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