W h i t e A d m i r a l Newsletter 86 Autumn 2013 Suffolk Naturalists’ Society C o n te n t s Editorial & Snippets Ben Heather 1 Members’ Evening & 3 SNS Conference 2014 Dolichopus laticola ; the first recent Peter Vincent 4 record of this species outside Update on the Purple Hairstreaks Richard Stewart 6 Grass Snakes at Sea John Baker and 7 Eve Simnett Juvenile Cuttlefish at Shingle Street G e n B r oa d 8 Response of Stag Beetle larvae to Colin Hawes 11 wa t e r - logged soils and flooding Vegetation Stripes at Knettishall Caroline Markham 13 Heath CGS 29th June 2013 The day an Emperor came knocking H a w k H on e y 16 Shanks’s Pony or the Bicycling Adam Stuart 20 B ot a n i s t More on Newton and Wrigley Tom Langton 24 Percy the Macaw Joan Hardingham 26 Lon g - tailed Blue Lampides boeticus a t Tim Bagworth 27 Landguard Bird Observatory ISSN 0959-8537 Published by the Suffolk Naturalists’ Society c/o Ipswich Museum, High Street, Ipswich, Suffolk IP1 3QH Registered Charity No. 206084 Front Cover: Fly Agaric - Amanita Muscaria by Jonathan J Wright http://flic.kr/p/gCkn19 Newsletter 86 - Autumn 2013 In the last newsletter I started to introduce a technical theme to the Suffolk Naturalists’ Society and in this issue I would like to follow this up by introducing the title and theme for next year’s conference. The conference, which will take place on the 15th February 2014 at Wherstead Park, will be called ‘Nature’s New Scientists’ and aims to address, through presentations and talks, the ways in which technology is aiding the progression of natural history studies and biological recording into the future. Can I also draw your attention to the next members’ evening on the 21st November at the Cedars Hotel in Stowmarket, which is detailed on page 3. I hope you will join us to hear talks on a variety of subjects, including a summary of the two very successful ‘Recording Taster Days’ held, during the summer, at Knettishall Heath and Carlton Marshes. We hope to host more such events in the future but if you would like a sample of what happened please visit our website www.sns.org.uk where you can find a video of Toby Abrehart searching for aquatic inverts at Carlton Marshes. Despite taking a long time to get going, it has been an excellent summer for recording. If you have not yet visited the Suffolk Biological Records Centre online recording page, it is not too late to record your wildlife sightings from the summer. Over 700 records have been submitted directly from the SBRC site and many more through the host site www.brc.ac.uk/irecord/. Thank you to all those who have contributed to this edition of White Admiral, please keep it coming! Editor: Ben Heather Suffolk Biological Records Centre , c/o Ipswich Museum, High Street, Ipswich, IP1 3 Q H [email protected] White Admiral 86 1 Sn i p p ets Garden wildlife: what species fared well in 2013? Telegraph In a year of climatic extremes, we look at the winners and losers among our garden wildlife. http://fw.to/mD6bCXS Invasion of the false widow spider media stories! Guardian Mark Riley Cardwell: Spider sightings may be up, but experts say it’s due to a reaction to the media frenzy, not an explosion in their population. http://gu.com/p/3jzb9/tf Slug Watch: A new website to discover just how far and wide the Spanish slug has spread in the UK. The website also features a slug version of top trumps, ‘Slug Trumps’. Players can learn the vital statistics of various slug species, whilst they try and out trump their competitor. http://www.slugwatch.co.uk Suffolk Biological Records Centre is now on Pinterest. Pinterest is a site that allows users to create and browse pin boards of information. The SBRC has a pin board that features photos of all the Suffolk biodiversity action plan (BAP) species & habitats. These boards can be found at the follow address http://www.pinterest.com/ biologicalrecor/ St Jude storm causes minimal tree loss. Guardian Naturalists assessing the ecological damage say woodland and ancient trees survived much better than expected http://t.co/puMbcsRXeb 2 Follow @SuffolkBRC on White Admiral 86 twitter for more snippets Members’ Evening Date: 21st November Time: 7.00pm for 7.30pm start. Finish 9.30pm Place: Cedars Hotel, Needham Road, Stowmarket, Suffolk, IP14 2AJ Drinks from the bar on arrival and half-time refreshment break (tea & coffee). Presentations: Rob Parker—Update on the Blaxhall Common Silver-studded Blue translocation Tony Prichard—Crypsis in moths Steve Piotrowski—Progress on the Foraging Farmland Bird Project Gen Broad—Recording Taster Days with Suffolk Wildlife Trust Colin Hawes—Response of stag beetle larvae to water-logged soils and flooding SNS Conference 2014 — Save the date Nature’s New Scientists The Future of Wildlife Recording 15th February 2014 Wherstead Park Talks and presentations focused on the expanding role of technology in natural history and wildlife recording. Including a presentation by Phil Atkinson (Head of BTO’s International Research Team) talking about BTO’s cuckoo tracking project. Full details will be available soon on the SNS website White Admiral 86 3 Dolichopus laticola (Verrall) (Diptera, Dolichopodidae) a UK BAP Priority Fly found at Walberswick NNR; the first recent record of this species outside Norfolk Since the original description of with records only from Denmark Dolichopus laticola, (Verrall, 1904) and Belgium (Fauna Europea from specimens collected at 2011) where it is known only from Ormesby Broad, Norfolk in 1888 a single site, de l’étang de Virelles (Verrall 1904), all records of D. (Grootaert et al. 1988). It is likely, laticola have been confined to the therefore, that a significant Broads area of Norfolk, leading to proportion of the world population its English sobriquet of Broads is to be found in Britain. This Long-legged Fly. This association restricted distribution and compar- was anticipated by Verrall in his ative rarity and vulnerability lead selection of the specific name (from Falk and Crossley (2005) to regard latus = broad and -cola = dweller). D. laticola as endangered and an Following Verrall’s records, D. RDB1 species, and this resulted in laticola has been subsequently it being included on the list of UK recorded from Bure Nature BAP Priority Species (Natural Reserve by d’Assis-Fonseca (1978) England 2011). and from Woodbastwick, Mills In 2010 at Walberswick NNR, as Marsh in the Bure valley and part of a study of the habitat Catfield in the Ant valley preferences of Dolichopodidae, (Laurence 1995). These records are specimens of D. laticola were included in the English Nature collected from two habitat types, Research Report no. 477 (Lott et fen (NVC, M22a J u n c u s al. 2002). During 2010, Martin subnodulosus-Cirsium palustre fen Drake (pers. comm.) found D. meadow, typical sub-community) laticola at three sites in the Ant and wet woodland (NVC, W2a valley (Catfield, Sutton and Salix cinerea-Betula pubescens- Barton) and three in the Bure Phragmites australis woodland, valley (Woodbastwick, Ebb and Alnus glutinosa-Filipendula Flow and Horning Marsh Farm). ulmaria sub-community). No D. All the above named sites form laticola were collected from the part of the River Bure catchment adjacent reedbed or any of the of the Norfolk Broads National other habitats sampled. Between Park. In Europe D. laticola 22 May 2010 and 7 August 2010 a appears to be similarly uncommon total of 134 specimens (62 males 4 White Admiral 86 and 72 females) of D. laticola were Museum were examined; collected using water traps unfortunately they were in poor (Vincent 2011). condition and therefore the records The UK BAP species D. laticola could not be verified. River hitherto has only been recorded dredging and water abstraction at from the Bure catchment of the Tuddenham Fen has changed the Norfolk Broads. However, these ecology of the area and the fen records from Walberswick NNR on probably does not continue to the Suffolk coast during 2010 have support D. laticola at present. added a second area to the known However, these Suffolk records distribution of D. laticola. An may suggest that D. laticola was earlier Suffolk record of D. laticola once a more widespread wetland by Morley from Tuddenham Fen in species and further East Anglian 1904 is mentioned by Aston (1954). populations may yet be discovered. Two specimens labelled as D. laticola from Tuddenham Fen from Peter Vincent the Morley collection at Ipswich References: Assis-Fonseca, E.C.M. d’. 1978. Diptera Orthorrhapha Brachycera. Dolichopodidae. Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects 9, 1-90. Royal Entomological Society, London. Aston, A. 1954. The Diptera of Suffolk. The Transactions of the Suffolk Naturalists’ Society 9, 21-31. Falk, S.J. and Crossley, R. 2005. A review of the scarce and threatened flies of Great Britain. Part 3: Empidoidea. Species Status 3, 1-134. Peterborough, Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Fauna Europea. 2011. Dolichopus laticola distribution [online] http://www.faunaeur.org/ distribution [Accessed 22 August 2011]. Grootaert, P., Verlinden, L., Meuffels, H., Haghebaert, G., Pollet, M., Leclercq, M., De Meyer, M. and Magis, N. 1988. Diptères de la réserve naturelle de l’étang de Virelles en Belgique. Bulletin et Annales de la Société royale belge d’Entomologie 124, 320-324. Laurence, B.R. 1995. Abundance and rarity of Dolichopodidae (Diptera) in East Anglian wetlands, with an addition to the British list. Entomologist’s monthly Magazine 131, 95-105.