Ptilium affine Erichson (Ptiliidae) in Suffolk

摘要

Four specimens of an unfamiliar ptiliid collected in Suffolk were provisionally identified as Ptilium affine Erichson using the keys in Darby (2012) but this outcome seemed somewhat unlikely as the distribution and status were given as "Very local: Wicken Fen (Cambridgeshire) only, formerly in E Gloucestershire and "Norfolk"; rare". A specimen was therefore sent to Michael Darby, who quickly confirmed its identity as P. affine. The beetles had been sieved from a sample of a large clump of fresh, unidentified fungus at the base of a live sallow Salix trunk on the edge of a flooded grazing marsh at Thelnetham, West Suffolk (VC 26),TM0178, on 18.xi.2019. The area is known locally as Parker's Piece and is owned by the Little Ouse Headwaters Project (LOHP), a charity dedicated to the restoration and conservation of the upper Little Ouse valley on the Norfolk/Suffolk borders. The specimen (a female) identified by Michael Darby, with a slide of the genitalia mounted underneath, will be donated to the Natural History Museum, London.