BR. I. BNT. NAT. HIST., 6: 1993 179 



plants growing amongst the sedge. Reed {Phragmites ausirulis) (Cav.) Trin. is tut 

 during the winter. Cut reed beds are open in the spring but by midsummer the reeds 

 can be six feet tall and few other plants grow amongst them. Reed beds do ho 

 support a wide range of insects, including 23 RDB species and 7 1 classed as nationally 

 scarce. Some of these insects are more frequent in unmanaged reed beds where the 

 lack of cutting has allowed a build up of litter and old stems. 



13 April 1993 



Mr R. Uffen showed live specimens of a male and female solitary bee Anthophora 

 plumipes (Pallas) (Anthophoridae). The male was taken at Lamium album L. (white 

 dead nettle) flowers and the female at its nest site in an old clunch wall at Ashwell, 

 Herts. The females were buzzing in dozens about two sections of the wall but only 

 on the eastern side. Also present at the nest site and shown as a live specimen was 

 the much more local bee Melecta albifrons (Forster) (Anthophoridae), which is a 

 cleptoparasite of A. plumipes. 



Mr A. J. Halstead said that Anthophora plumipes could be found nesting in the 

 mortar on the south face of an old wall in Royston, Herts. Mr C. W. Plant said 

 that it also nested in a wall in the East Ham district of London. 



Dr D. Lonsdale showed some live 2-spot ladybirds, Adalia bipunctata (L.), 

 collected on 21.iii.93 from their overwintering site behind shutters on a house at 

 Chawton, Hants. Of the 97 specimens collected, 75 were of the typical form and there 

 was one weak annulata form. The others were melanic forms with six quadrimaculata 

 and nine sexpustulata . The plant bug Heterogaster urticae (F.) (Lygaeidae) was also 

 found overwintering with the ladybirds. 



The President announced that, as required by the Society's constitution, he was 

 notifying the meeting that Council intends to introduce a single subscription rate of 

 £12.50 in 1994, when there will no longer be a distinction between country and London 

 members. This proposal will be put to the membership for approval at a special meeting 

 to be held on the occasion of the September ordinary meeting. 



Dr J. Muggleton said that the official opening of the Pelham-Clinton building 

 at Dinton Pastures would be held on Sunday, 27 June. Sir Richard Southwood will 

 perform the ceremony. Refreshments will be served but as the function room at the 

 country park has a capacity of about 70 persons it may be necessary to hold a ballot 

 for places. Further details will be circulated to members shortly. The building is open 

 to members between 10.30 a.m. and 4.00 p.m. on the second and fourth Sundays 

 in the month. 



Mr B. Baker had noted several insects earlier in the day as he had walked 

 through Kensington Gardens. He had seen a flowering cherry with frass on the 

 bark, presumably produced by larvae of the tortricid moth Enarmonia formosana 

 (Scop.), and on the trunk of a lime tree he had seen cocoons of the moth Bucculatrix 

 thoracella (Thunb.) (Lyonetiidae). He had also seen an adult Esperia sulphurella (F.) 

 (Oecophoridae) which he thought was early for this species. 



Mr R. Softly said he had recently spent some time in Morocco on the south side 

 of the high Atlas mountains. He had run a Heath trap for 10 nights between 28. hi 

 and 6.iv in an area of stony desert. He had attracted about 200 moths of about half 

 a dozen species per night, one of which was the striped hawk moth, Hyles lineata 

 (F.). There were no food plants in the area but on the 10 successive nights he had 

 caught 1, 0, 9, 4, 8, 5, 3, 1, 1 and specimens. He thought this variation in numbers 

 might indicate a migration of this moth through the area. 



