A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



The water-beetles, both carnivorous and phytophagous, offer little of note, and much yet 

 remains to be done concerning them, since, considering the great extent of brackish and fresh water, 

 there is no reason why all the very rarest, which occur in our latitude, should not be found here. 

 Mr. E. A. Newbery has recently introduced Haliplus immaculatus, Gerh., into the British fauna, on 

 the strength of specimens taken at Bury St. Edmunds by Mr. W. H. Tuck, M.A. The fen- 

 loving Hydroporus halensis was first captured in Britain at Haughley ; and subsequently at Stow- 

 market and Bungay ; I have found it commonly in a little rain-pool in the Foxhall crag-pits, and 

 once or twice in the Bramford marshes. Illybius subaeneus is also said to have occurred in the 

 Waveney near Beccles, though the record appears open to doubt. Marsham noticed Cercyon littor- 

 alis on the banks of the Orwell near Ipswich, and it is still extremely abundant in the same locality, 

 with Ahochara algarum, &c. The Brachelytra are represented by some four hundred species ; and 

 many of Stephens's records cannot be incorporated for lack of synonymy. Microglossa marginalis has 

 once occurred to me at Martlesham, and the rare Myrmedonia collaris is not unusually found at 

 Oulton Broad and near Beccles, by sifting the refuse of marsh-hay stacks. Vellim dilatatus has 

 several times turned up in some numbers ; Prof. Henslow, writing to the Zoologist, says he took 

 thirty or forty examples in 1848 ; and in 1896 Mr. Tuck found several in the nests of hornets and 

 wasps at Bury St. Edmunds. In bees' nests the latter found the first British Quedius nigrocaeru/eus, 

 which was also taken by Bedwell at Kessingland in July 1905.* Ocypus cyaneus is found about 

 Bury, where it has occurred several times ; and one or two Philonthus lucens have turned up in the 

 Bentley Woods, in moss. Stilicus fragilis was once found in abundance in Aspall Wood by 

 Dr. Garneys, but seems to have died out, since I have been unable to rediscover it there. Rye 

 wrote so fully of the Suffolk Stent that the genus is well represented with us ; its best exponents, 

 perhaps, being Stenus ater, incrassatus, circu/aris, nigritu/us, Erichsoni, pa/Iidipes, and fornicatus. Oxy- 

 porus rufui is often common in summer fungi ; and I once took two females of Bledius taurus flying 

 to electric light in the middle of Ipswich at night.' Prognatha quadricomis is another species first 

 found in Britain by Kirby near Barham ; it has since occurred to Mr. Tuck at Bury St. Edmunds, 

 and to me at Lakenheath. 



Several of the extensive and heterogeneous genera of the Clavicornia merit especial notice. The 

 first two, which constituted the subject of Denny's Monographia, are somewhat poorly represented, 

 primarily on account of their small size, retiring habits, and general rarity ; Batrisus venustus was 

 first foimd in Britain near Barham, and subsequently by Mr. Waterhouse near Glemsford in an old 

 stxmip. Curtis figures a Suffolk specimen of Silpha opaca — possibly that taken at Aldeburgh by the 

 Rev. F. W. Hope — in his British Entomology ; and I have dug up the rare Hister maginatus at the 

 base of an oak tree near Ipswich. Saprinus virescens has occurred to me at Belstead, and Teretrius 

 piapes to Garneys near Bungay. All the common ladybirds are very freely met with, though 

 Coccinella i^-punctata has only been found, and then very rarely, near Bungay and Ipswich. 

 Scymnus pulchdlus is practically confined to the vicinity of Barham, one specimen only being 

 recorded from Kent in the Entomologists Annual, 1864, p. 72. There were but two old specimens 

 in Kirby's collection j and it was not till May 1894 that F. Fox rediscovered it at Coddenham, 

 upon one side of one particular pine tree. I have taken Rhizophagus parallelocolUs at Blakenham ; 

 and recently turned up Orthocerus muticus, which had not been taken here for twenty years, upon 

 the wind-swept heaths of the Breck, near MildenhaU. Aglenus hrunnnts is a well-known British 

 insect, and there is no need to doubt the accuracy of Dr. Garneys' record of it from Bedingfield.* 

 The last Clavicorn worthy of note is Heterocerus obsoUtus, Curtis, which its author found on the salt 

 marshes in Suffolk the beginning of May ; here it is still met with in no inconsiderable numbers, 

 burrowing in the mud at the ditch-sides and flying freely in the sunshine. Mr. E. C. Bedwell has 

 recently found that several unsuspected species of this group, including the rare Silvanus surinamensis, 

 live in our Suffolk flour-mills. The Lamillicorn, Copris lunaris, was also found by Curtis at 

 Bungay ; and I have taken one specimen, apparently attracted by light, in a street lamp on the out- 

 skirts of Ipswich. Of the extensive and interesting genus Aphodius, we have noted twenty-five species, 

 of which A. constans, not noticed since Stephens's record, A. porcus, by no means rare, and A. quadri- 

 maculatus, which Mr. Fox informed me he had once found at Bawdsey and is now found near 

 Ipswich, are the best. Odontaeus mobilicornis has once been recorded from the county ; as also have 

 Ischnodes sanguinicollis and Ludius ferrugineus. 



Of the Malacoderma, the fen-loving Silis ruficollis occurs commonly in July along the valley of 

 the Waveney, extending as far west as Brandon ; together with Anthocomus rufus and Axinotarsus 

 ruficollis. Psilothrix nobilis, which ranges no farther north than Norfolk, is rarely met with in 

 flowers of Glaucium flavum on the coast ; and I have once swept Phloeophilus Edwardsi in Dodnash 

 Woods. Lar\'ae and imagines of Ptinus gtrmanus were very common in an old gate-post at 

 Wenham in April 1899, having been previously taken once or twice at Bungay, where Dr. Garneys 



• Cf. Ent. Mo. Mag. Mar. 1896 ; Dec. 1898 ; 1905, p. 279. ' Cf. Eniom. Nov. 1895. 



» See Claude Morley, Coleoptera ofSuff. 58. 



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