MEMBERS’ EVENING
23rd NOVEMBER 2005

The 2005 Autumn Members’ Evening was held at The Holiday Inn, Copdock on Wednesday, 23rd November. Despite the screening on the same evening of the first of David Attenborough’s new series “Life in the Undergrowth”, thirty-eight members and friends attended from all across Suffolk and further afield. As last year it was good to see so many new faces in addition to old friends.

It was noticeable that the majority of the ten-minute presentations and the exhibits brought along to the meeting related to invertebrates - perhaps a subconscious response to the BBC publicity! Colin Hawes provided an interesting poster related to research at York University and Royal Holloway College. The researchers are developing a non-destructive technique for detecting Stag Beetle larvae (Lucanus cervus) in dead wood using audio probes. Rob Parker had brought along a serin nest from Mauritius but did not entirely escape the invertebrate theme as he also had a specimen of the Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis). David Lampard’s exhibit was similarly split between birds and beetles with a photo of a bird that a member of the public had asked the museum to identify and a series of small beetles that also needed naming. Nigel Cuming exhibited specimens and photographs of three scarce heteropteran bugs collected in Suffolk during 2005. He also displayed specimens of a weevil (Rhyncites auratus) presumed to be extinct in Britain but rediscovered in Colchester and suggested it may also be present in Suffolk. Neil Sherman exhibited a case of moths collected from Ipswich golf course and Paul Lee provided specimens and information on some unusual spiders collected in Suffolk during 2005. All members are encouraged to bring along their exhibits. It need not be a rare find, it just needs to be something that would interest other members. You do not even need to know exactly what it is you have; take the opportunity to find out if someone else knows anything about your mystery item.

Juliet Hawkins opened the series of ten-minute presentations with an account of the SWT Great Crested Newt Project with which she is involved. She outlined the life cycle and habitat preferences of the species and related this to the distribution of the newt in Suffolk and the management of newt sites. Rob Parker then brought us back to the invertebrate theme with comments on some unusual sightings of butterflies in 2005. Despite the generally poor season for butterflies he had details of an unusual aberrant form of Small Copper (Lycaena phleas f. alba) from Rendlesham Forest and a heat shocked variant of Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae var. ab-conjucta) from Great Yarmouth. The presence of Purple Emperor (Apatura iris) in Theberton Woods was confirmed but only as a result of a series of releases. Paul Lee provided an update on the status of the Wasp Spider (Argiope bruennichi) within Suffolk and reported on the results of the members’ project to record two other conspicuous spiders, Pholcus phalangioides and Misumena vatia. Martin Sanford and David Nash then joined forces to outline the current status of the Harlequin Ladybird in Suffolk and this elicited a considerable number of comments and questions from the audience. Martin Sanford completed the presentations with a taster of the County Rare Plant Register to be published in the next volume of Suffolk Natural History.

One of the most pleasurable aspects of our open evenings is the opportunity it provides to chat with friends old and new on topics of mutual interest. That the social side of these events is highly valued by members is reflected in the feedback that SNS officers receive. It was obvious also in the reluctance of many members, despite the prospect of a long journey home, to leave the venue until after 10pm. If you missed out on the event this time around then put a note in your diary for Wednesday 1st March when the next Member’s Evening will be held at the SWT Lackford Lakes centre. You should also make a note of Wednesday 19th April when the Society’s AGM will be held at the Holiday Inn, Copdock and Dr Michael Majerus of Cambridge University will give a talk on his work with the Harlequin Ladybird.

Paul Lee