THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 247
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB—REPORTS OF MEETINGS
ORDINARY MEETING (840th Meeting).
SATURDAY, 30TH OCTOBER, 1943.
This Meeting, held, as usual during the War, at "Brooklands," 37, Church-
fields, Woodford, at 2 o'clock on the above afternoon, was attended by 24 members.
In the absence of the President. Mr. D. J. Scourfield was voted to the chair.
The meeting was devoted to short papers, notes, or exhibits by members.
Miss Flower exhibited a living Wood Mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus, and a Field
Vole, Microtus agrestis, and gave an entertaining account of their habits in
captivity.
Miss G. Lister exhibited and described Stemonitis hyperopta, a mycetozoan
found by Mr. Ross in Epping Forest at Chingford on July 29th last : this, the
typical hyperopta, has not before been recorded from Essex, although its variety
microspora has been found in the Forest. Mr. Ross kindly presented the specimen
to the Stratford Museum.
Mr. Covernton sent for exhibition a number of flint artefacts of neolithic
facies, all gathered by himself on ploughed fields at Finchingfield, together with
descriptive notes of the various forms.
Mr. A. Hills contributed notes on the Rose-coloured Pastor, only five specimens
of which bird have ever been recorded from Essex ; on the Centenary of the true
Bardfield Oxlip, Primula elatior, first identified by Doubleday a hundred years
ago ; and an account of Dr. Dodd of West Ham, whose execution for forgery
took place in 1777.
Mr. Main showed a living pupa of the Death's-head Moth and described its
life-history : he also showed a house-spider (Tegenaria sp.) with a house fly
caught in its web, the fly attacked by the fungus Empusa muscae.
Mr. Ross showed Cherry-galls of the Oak, with mounted specimens of the
flies (Diplolepis quercus folii and other varieties) bred by him from these galls.
Mr. Scourfield called attention to a common condition of beech leaves in the
autumn, when leaf-mining insects arrest the decay of the chlorophyll of the leaf,
presumably by the injection of some fluid, and so enable the developing grub to
continue to feed upon the chlorophyll, even after the leaf is dead and fallen from
the tree, until its full stature is attained.
Mr. Syms exhibited the pretty nest of the Potter Wasp, Eumenes coarctata on
heather, together with specimens of the adult wasp.
Mr. Crouch showed an illustrated Abstract of Title to the Woodford Hall
estate, (on which our present meeting-place was sited), and spoke of the various
owners from the early 18th century until the property was developed for building
in 1866.
The Curator exhibited illustrations of old Colchester, including views of the
predecessors of the present Town Hall and adjacent buildings, all from the Pictorial
Survey collection.
Thanks were accorded to the various contributors to an interesting meeting.
ORDINARY MEETING (841st Meeting).
SATURDAY. 27TH NOVEMBER, 1943.
This meeting was held, as usual, at "Brooklands," 37, Churchfields, Woodford,
at 2 o'clock on the above date, with the President in the chair. Twenty-one
members were present, a not unsatisfactory attendance for a foggy November
afternoon with drizzly rain.
Miss G. Lister exhibited and described a specimen of the "bird's-nest fungus,"
Crucibulum vulgare, and also a coloured drawing of same. She remarked that,
as the spores require a fairly high temperature to burst the hard spore-case, it is
thought that the latter is eaten by warm-blooded animals and so the dispersal of
the spores effected.