1 EDITORIAL I am pleased to welcome in the new year with a varied programme which I hope will suit you all. Once again I am indebted to our recorders who have responded to my requests for articles. My thanks to them and to Joanna Foley for the cover and to Sheila Leswell for typing it all. After some delay we are pleased to announce the impending publication of the Essex Naturalist No. 7 in the new series which will be followed shortly by another on the Macrolepidoptera. I would like to inform you that two bound sets of the old series of the Essex Naturalist are up for sale: one from Andrew Snelling and one from the Quekett Microscopical Club. I can let interested buyers have their addresses if they contact me. Please let me have articles for the next edition by 1st May, 1984 ISSN 0264-6730 Tony Boniface Information from General Secretary Mrs. Sheila Leswell 19 Church Road, Mountnessing, Brentwood, Essex, CM15 0TH. Telephone Ingatestone 353917