WHITE ADMIRAL Newsletter 79 Summer 2011 SUFFOLK NATURALISTS’ SOCIETY CONTENTS EDITORIAL 1 SNIPPETS 2 NEW MARINE RECORDS FOR SUFFOLK Gen Broad 3 THE PRIESTLEY WOOD DORMOUSE PROJECT Liz Cutting 7 - THE FIRST DECADE ACUTE OAK DECLINE - A NEW DISEASE OF Gary Battell 10 OAK TREES IN SUFFOLK DO YOU KNOW YOUR DRAGONFLIES? Mark Nowers 11 THE SLEEPLESS HIBERNATION Nick Sibbett 12 THE LICHENS OF HIGHAM LODGE Christopher Hitch 15 TWO NOTES ON GRASS SNAKES A determined grass snake J. & C. Bowdrey 21 Grass snake movement and dry weather in Tom Langton 21 2010 ANOTHER NEW SPECIES OF SPIDER FOR Ray Ruffell 22 SUFFOLK 23 NUTHATCHES Liz Cutting IPSWICH MUSEUM CELEBRATES HENSLOW’S Ann Ainsworth 24 150th ANNIVERSARY A BUTTERFLY SPRING Rob Parker 24 THE WALL BROWN - A SINGLE SPECIES Mark Nowers 26 SURVEY ODDS & ENDS Useful viewer-magnifier Richard Fisk 29 Testers sought for new earthworm key Martin Sanford 29 Stag beetle sightings 2011 Colin Hawes 29 A HERBALIST’S VIEW OF GREATER Caroline Wheeler 30 CELANDINE POEM The Resident Carp Rasik Bhadresa 31 THE NAIL FUNGUS IN SUFFOLK Neil Mahler 31 A FURTHER INFLUX OF RANNOCH LOOPER IN Tony Prichard 34 2011 WEBSITE UPDATES Adrian Chalkley 35 Cover photograph: Nuthatch by Liz Cutting ISSN 0959-8537 Published by the Suffolk Naturalists’ Society c/o Ipswich Museum, High Street, Ipswich, Suffolk IP1 3QH Registered Charity No. 206084 © Suffolk Naturalists’ Society SUFFOLK NATURALISTS’ SOCIETY David Walker Ancient House Lower Street, Stutton Suffolk IP9 2SQ [email protected] SUMMER 2011 2010 was the United Nations Year of Biodiversity and SNS recorders did their bit and it is extraordinary how much time and effort they put into it. According to Martin Sanford, the Suffolk Biological Records Centre has added nearly a quarter of a million records in the last six months with records from SNS members continuing to greatly enhance the SBRC data holdings. Rob Parker has provided over 100,000 butterfly records (from the last 10 years). Richard Fisk has supplied 50,000 bryophyte records and David Nash has sent in nearly 20,000 beetle records. Many smaller contributions from members have added useful information on badgers, newts and other BAP species. The February 2011 British Wildlife magazine had accounts that illustrate the efforts people make - Peter Stubbs studies the Marmalade Hoverfly in his Peterborough Garden: “on 26th July 115 were seen, reaching a peak on 8th Aug of 739 – a record for my 20 years of monitoring”! Conversely, Paul Waring was winter mothing - again in Peterborough; the cold snowy weather did not deter him keeping an eye on the temperature and whipping out his moth trap on every time it rose above freezing. He was rewarded at the end of December with one male Winter Moth. John Walters describes his attempts to photograph the Heath Potter Wasp building its pots at Bovey Heathfield in Devon: it took four years to find an unsealed pot, though he did plot the position of 213 newly constructed pots and 200 from the previous year. He located a pot being built by following a wasp from where it was collecting the clay. I am certain that our Suffolk recorders make similar efforts and it would be interesting to hear their tales. Joan Hardingham, SNS Chairman The SNS extends warmest congratulations to The Suffolk Wildlife Trust on its 50th anniversary. The SWT has become a powerful voice for conservation in Suffolk and performs a vital, extremely effective educational role. It is needed more than ever in the 21st Century. Long may it continue. White Admiral 79 1 SNIPPETS • Mark Avery, the former Director of Conservation at the RSPB, left his post in May after 25 years with the organisation. In an article in The Guardian on May 4th he hit out at farmers, saying “I’ve come to see the NFU as a fundamentally anti-environment organisation. At almost every opportunity the NFU chooses the option which will harm the environment…”. • The Harlequin ladybird is about to overtake the seven-spot as the most common in Britain. Ten species have declined in the last ten years including the 2-spot, 10-spot and 14-spot. See the new ladybird atlas: ‘Ladybirds (Coccinellidae) of Britain and Ireland’ published by Biological Records Centre, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, UK. ISBN 978-1-906698-20-1. • GeoSuffolk’s new Handbook (Earth Heritage Suffolk) has been distributed free to many Suffolk geodiversity providers. Copies are free if you are a provider or owner of Suffolk geodiversity, or £6 (including p&p) from GeoSuffolk, c/o Ipswich Museum, High Street, Ipswich, IP1 3QH. • The last time that ash trees came into leaf before oak was in 1953 (information from the Woodland Trust). • SNS sends best wishes to former SNS Council member Rob Macklin who retired from the RSPB in the spring. High among his many achievements is the restoration of Church Farm marsh, which is now one of the best sites for wild fowl in Britain. • Research carried out by the Zoological Society of London has found that some frogs infected with Ranavirus have recovered, indicating development of immunity. However, the problems of pond loss and parasitic fungi still remain the biggest threats to amphibia. • The EU’s agricultural commissioner has spoken out against GM crops, saying that they do not meet the needs for quality foods, diverse diets and biodiversity. Findings that toxins inserted into GM crops have been found in blood of women and unborn babies are also worrying. • Local authorities and Government must take a lead on reducing the impact of light pollution on Britain’s bugs, including that associated with new solar panels, according to a report published by Buglife. The report says that it is clear that artificial lighting and shiny flat surfaces in the wrong place significantly disrupt ecosystems, and could be contributing to current declines and extinctions of invertebrates. Artificial night lighting, the most obvious threat, disrupts the natural rhythms of light and dark which govern the feeding, breeding and migration patterns of nocturnal insects. Another problem is polarised light pollution. Until recently all flat shiny surfaces that reflected polarised light were ponds or rivers, but now there are many similar artificial surfaces such as plastic sheeting on agricultural fields, shiny tarmac, and solar panels. Aquatic insects, believing these surfaces are water, lay their eggs which perish in the sun. 2 White Admiral 79 NEW MARINE RECORDS FOR SUFFOLK It is exciting to report that two new marine records have been made in Suffolk by members of the public: a nudibranch (sea slug) on Lowestoft sea defences and an anemone (sometimes called the ‘fried egg anemone’) on Southwold beach. Onchidoris bilamellata (Linnaeus 1767) In March this year, Nick Blacker found a species of nudibranch previously unrecorded in Suffolk, Onchidoris bilamellata. The nearest recent records of the species are from Norfolk (Cley and Weybourne) in July and August 2009 in the sub- littoral zone. There is an old record (July 1985) from Folkestone in Kent (NBN Gateway). On 19th March, Nick was following an Iceland gull, hoping for a good view if it landed. When the gull failed to cooperate and carried on flying south, he decided to have a quick look at the old concrete sea defences since there was an exceptionally low tide. Nick first noticed some closed beadlet anemones Actinia equina, and then his eye was drawn by “some small groups of smaller, pale brown blobs with small whitish spots”. It wasn’t until he transferred one gently onto a worn brick in a shallow pool of water that it opened up, revealing the characteristic features of a sea slug. The animals were about 25 mm in length. White masses on the concrete near the animals turned out to be sea slug eggs. Most of the sea slugs were out of the water, either singly or in clusters. To his surprise and delight, he realised he had come across many hundreds of the egg-laying nudibranch Onchidoris bilamellata, a species not previously recorded from Suffolk. Nick made further sightings of the slug when he returned to the shore during the following two days and subsequently every couple of weeks on spring tides. No individuals were spotted close to Ness Point, but Nick initially saw hundreds of sea slugs further south along the coastline. By 4th April, the numbers had reduced and by early June, most of the sea slugs had disappeared, with just a few small animals remaining. Nudibranchs are marine snails without a shell, belonging to the phylum Mollusca which includes snails, slugs, mussel, cockles, clams and squid. The term ‘nudibranch’ means “naked gills” because the gills are exposed along the back or sides of the animal. Although a few species, such as the very common sea lemon Archidoris pseudoargus, can grow to more than 100 mm, most UK species are much smaller and many are only 5 to 7 mm in length [Picton & Morrow 2010(a)]. Onchidoris bilamellata is a dorid sea slug, belonging to the sub-order Doridacea (Gofas 2011), a group which can produce acid secretions from the mantle as a defence. The species can be recognised by its dirty white colour with a brown pattern, horseshoe-shaped gills and club-shaped projections (usually white) on the mantle. This species is gregarious and feeds exclusively on barnacles, especially the acorn barnacle Semibalanus balanoides (Edwards 2004). Onchidoris bilamellata is widely distribution and is recorded north of the Arctic White Admiral 79 3 Pl. 1: Onchidoris bilamellata, Lowestoft beach, 20th March 2011 Photo: Andrew Easton Pl. 2: Actinothoe sphyrodta, Southwold beach, 29th December 2010 Photo: Esther Simpson 4 White Admiral 79 Circle in Greenland, Norway, Iceland and as far south as Connecticut on the North American coast.