Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/152

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK and G. profligator, which are very closely related species, arc abundant on umbelliferous flowers throughout the county in July ; Tuck has once taken Phygadeuon Gravenhorsti in the nest of Bombus hartorum near Bury St. Edmunds ; I have caught P. variabilis in Shrubland Park ; P. hercynicus is common about Lowestoft in August ; P. brevitarsis has been turned up in Bentley Woods, where P. fumator is abundant during hibernation, while the closely allied P. dimidiatui once fell to my net in Barnby Broad. The elegant genus Panargyrops is only here represented by two species, P. pellucidator and P. tenuipesy both of which have been sent to me from Tostock by Mr. W. H. Tuck, M.A. Last autumn I worked out the sixty-nine British species of the genus Hemitcles, and I am now able to say that H. fuhipes, which is a common hyperparasite of the white butterflies, occurs at Southwold and Ipswich ; H. varitarsus I bred from a spider's nest in the Reydon marshes, and found on flowers at Claydon Bridge ; H. necator, H. bicolorinus, and the omnivorous H. areator are abun- dant, and I have often found H. cingulator on windows at Butley and Monk Soham in June. H. inimicus inhabits the Brandon marshes and Monk Park Wood, H. pedestris the Bentley Woods, in which both H. subzonatus, of which I have taken the undescribed male, and H. niger hibernate. H. similis is common at Kenton, Southwold, &c. ; as also is H. tristator. H. Jaevigatus occurs at Alderton and in Tuddenham Fen ; H. incisus in Finborough Park ; H. distinctus about Brandon ; Tuck has found H. gracilis at Tostock, and H. aestivalis is plentiful throughout the county. Orthopelma luteolator preys extensively upon the bedeguar galls of Rhodites rosae, locally known as ' robins' pin cushions,' and I have received Cecidonomus IVestoni from Tuck, found at Tostock. In revising the British Stilpnides, Ifound that Stilpnus gagates had occurred at Blakenham ; S. deplanatus in Finborough Park, S. pavoniae at Witnesham, and the rare 5. Dryadum at Barton Mills in June. The genus Atractodes, which is now placed in this group of the Cryptinae, is here represented by A. gravida' at Southwold, and A. piceicornis at Foxhall, while A. vestalis and A. exilis are common. A. bicelor, whose economy is not yet known, is occasionally found in carrion j A. croceicornis rarely at Barton Mills and A. gilvipes at Brandon, as well as at Tostock by Tuck, who also turned up A. y^vwAi/Kf at Aldeburgh in September 1899. We have all the four species of Exolytus, -wh-xcYi I consider to be stable in Britain ; the extremely abundant E. laevigatas, the common E. scrutator ; E. splendens at Ipswich and Mildenhall, and E. petiolaris, which is but recently recorded from Britain, found at Foxhall. To this list of Cryptinae I am now able to add considerably through quite recent investigation among my specimens. One of the only two known British specimens of Trichocryptus aquaticus was taken by Tuck in Finborough Park ; and he found several Cubocephalus oviventris at Benacre Broad in 1899. Males of Microcryptus arridens, M. galactinus, and M. leucostictus are common on flowers, with, more sparingly, those of M. erythrinus, M. sperator, and M. lahralis. I introduced M. tricinctus as British on the strength of a 5 taken in the Bentley Woods, where both sexes of M. brachypterus and M. micropterus have also been found. Acanthocryptus Hopei and Glyphicnemis Suffhkiensis are species new to science found by me here, with G. brevis, G. erythrogastra, and G, senilis. Several more Pbygadeuones have also been noted : — P. rufulus, P. speculator, and P. sodalis are rare ; and only one P. nyctemerus has been seen, flying about the burrows of Hylesinus crenatus in an ash at Ashfield in September 1907. P. vagans isiA P. leucostigmus are not uncommon about South- wold in autumn ; and I took the second known specimen of P. Scoticus in the Bentley Woods. P. brachyurus and P. flavimanus seem rare, but P. assimilis, P. dumetorum and P. exiguus arc frequently met with, though P. mixtus, P. inflatus, and P. scaposus are infrequent. Spinolia fulveelata and Hemiteles varicornis are common among reeds ; my new H. hrunneus is also found here, and Cecidonomus xylonomoides, Mori., is described from an example found in Bentley Woods. Cremnodes atricapillus, Stilpnus hlandus, and Goniocryptus titillator are not at all common. The majority of the British Pezomachoides have occurred in the county, and are interesting as a group on account of their apterous condition and the great variety of their hosts, which include spiders, braconids, moths, and beetles ! Pezomachus aquisgranensis, P. Kiesenwetteri, and P. zonatus are found in moss in Bentley Woods in winter ; P. costatus at Kessingland, P. rufipes in grass-tufts, and P. aemulus are uncommon ; P. acarorum, P. festinans, and P. nigritus appear local species. Oulton Broad produces P. micrurus, and Bentley Woods both P . formicarius and P. Miitleri ; P. attentus, P. anthracinus, and P. timidus are somewhat rare ; but P. vagans, P. fraudulentus, and P. modestus arc abundant. By sweeping at dusk in September quantities of P. corrupter and P. carnifex may be obtained, with a rare P. comes and P. geochares. P. instabilis and P. intermedins are very common, but P. nigricornis distinctly rare, on fir trees in the spring ; the most ubiquitous of the whole genus, however, is P. fasciatus, which turns up everywhere. This brings us to the third sub-family, the slender-bodied Ophioninae, of which I have found Henicospilus ramidulus commonly on reeds in the salt marshes, as well as at light at midnight at Southwold ; H. merdarius preys on Dlanthaecia irregularis at Tuddenham ; Ophion minutus is rare in Assington Thicks in May, but both 0. obscurus and 0. luteus are very common at street lamps and 114