wood or fungus, and those which are found in old birds' nests and squirrels'
dreys, when they are not in our wardrobes. The Forest is an excellent habitat for
the first group, but they are underrecorded. The noblest of them is Morophaga
boleti, which fails by only one year to qualify as a 'recent' record. The Forest is a
classic locality for Nemopogon conticella which is reputed to prefer dead
hornbeam.
In the Sesiidae (19), only Conopia myopaeformis (red-belted clearwing) has
been recorded recently. Fresh records are lacking even for Synanthedon
salmachus (tipuliformis) (currant clearwing), described by Doubleday as "too
common''. He regarded the other species as '' very rare''.
A comparison between the figures for Yponomeutidae (23) for Essex and
Epping show it to be an underrecorded family and the same is true of the
Coleophoridae (26). In 1934 Mr B. T. Ward, a botanist, took a gall of
Augasma aeratella on knotgrass at Chigwell, only just outside our area, this
being one of the most recent British records for this very rare species. Epping
Forest is the type locality of Coleophora potentillae. At the turn of the century
C. genistae was common and its foodplant, needle whin (Genista anglica), was
said to be spreading; now it is in decline and the moth may be extinct in the
Forest. Epping is not a suitable habitat for the Elachistidae (27); of the species
which occur, the most notable is E. poae, which is found in the ponds which
support reed-grass (Glyceria maxima).
When one observes that of the 56 species of Oecophoridae recorded from
Essex, only six have been noted recently in the Forest, one is inclined to criticise
the microlepidopterists. This would be unfair. More than half belong to the
Depressariinae, most of which feed on Umbelliferae. Doubleday (1836) wrote,
"there are none of the umbelliferous plants": a slight exaggeration, but sup-
ported by my own observations. This deficiency also explains the absence of the
Epermeniidae (24). The only member of the Depressariinae recently recorded is
Agonopterix nervosa, which feeds on gorse (Ulex) and broom (Sarothamnus
scoparius). A. pulverella, which feeds on dyer's greenweed (Genista tinctoria) is
probably extinct, since its foodplant is in serious decline. Two species in the
other half of the family, the Oecophorinae, are notable. Wanstead is the type
locality of Batia lambdella where "a brood was discovered by Mr Bentley, an
eminent collector of insects, in July 1789" (Donovan, 1793). Wanstead was also
the only British locality for Callima formosella, of which "Mr Robertson took
specimens on a paling". The species has not been seen since the middle of the
last century.
Two rare species of Gelechiidae, Pseudotelphusa scalella and Psoricoptera
gibbosella continue to occur regularly. Teleiodes alburnella, which is common
in some years on the trunks of birch, is a good example of a new colonist.
Mirificarma lentiginosella of which J. W. Douglas bred a long series from the
Forest in 1853, has almost certainly become extinct with the decline of dyer's
greenweed, its foodplant. Of the Momphidae (33), also underrecorded, I shall
mention only Dysteblenna stephensi, which is often plentiful as an imago on the
boles of the oldest and largest oaks (Quercus spp.) in July. In the Scythrididae
(34) the only Essex record for Scythris grandipennis is that given by the V. C. H.
35