INSECTS
299
Mr. E. E. Syms informs us that he took Stollia fabricii on Lamium album
at Thaxted in 1949. From these insects he obtained ova which he reared
to maturity on the same food plant.
The species was recorded by Mr. D. Leston at North Weald in The
Entomologists' Monthly Magazine, 85, p. 253.
A fly new to Essex.—About 7.30 p.m. on 16 September 1950, during a
fleeting gleam of sunshine after a dull and showery day, I noticed an insect
feeding on the flowers of Michaelmas Daisies in my garden at Leytonstone.
At a distance I thought it was a Hornet but on closer inspection it proved to
be Volucella zonaria (Poda)—a female. This insect is a native of the Con-
tinent, seldom recorded in this country before 1940, since when it has appeared
in most years, usually in the southern coastal region. The present insect
constitutes a new record for Essex and has been placed in the Club's collection..
C. B. Pratt.
A migration of insects over the Thames estuary.—Mr. J. F. Burton (in
The Entomologist for September 1950) gives an account of a mass movement
of insects observed from the mile-long pier opposite Canvey Island on 25
September 1949. The insects, which comprised a number of orders and many
species, were flying south from Essex into Kent. Mention is made of obser-
vations of such migratory swarms in former years. Essex naturalists who
see evidence of similar movements should carefully record details so that the
observations may be correlated.
A giant Carp at Chingford.—On Christmas Eve 1933 I was advised that
a Mr. Cowie had found at the Warren Pond, Chingford, below the ice then
covering the pond, a large fish. Upon investigating the report I found
that the fish was a fine specimen of the Mirror Carp, a variety of the Common
Carp (Cyprinus carpio L.). It weighed just twenty-one pounds. The speci-
men was preserved and may still be seen in the museum in Queen Elizabeth's
Hunting Lodge at Chingford.
The Mirror Carp is a cultivated variety with one or two rows of large
mirror-like scales on each side. It is a "sport" and may "throw back" to
the normal form. There are frequent reports of large fish having been seen
in this pond and one of 191/2 pounds was taken from the same pond by fair
angling, by Mr. J. T. Fisher, on 8 July 1919. Tate Regan states that the limit
of weight of this species in England is twenty-five pounds but on the Con-
tinent specimens will exceed sixty pounds and a length of forty inches.
A remarkable coincidence arises in that today (Christmas Eve 1950) I
received a telephone message that a large fish had been caught in the neigh-
bourhood. I followed up the enquiry, saw the fish, which was still alive, and
found that it too had been found just below the ice of the same pond. That
history should thus repeat itself after such a long spell as seventeen years to
the day seems almost too "fishy" to be true. Perhaps the long arm of coin-
cidence should not be stretched to include the fact that it was to me that that
the news of the find was brought so quickly in each case. The present specimen
weighs sixteen pounds and is twenty-nine inches long.
As the fish is still alive steps are being taken to restore it to the water
whence it came, after marking it with one of the marking discs as used by
the Marine Biological Stations. Should it not survive to return to its natural
element preparations have been made for its preservation to make a "pair"
with the specimen we already have.
Bernard T. Ward.