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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