Forest as currently administered (Qvist, 1971) are included. This total of 1371
species compares well with any other British forest (or other area) of comparable
size, and is exceeded only by the known beetle faunas of the New Forest and
Windsor Forest, both of these being larger areas. Further careful collecting
would probably increase the number of species known from Epping Forest by
up to one hundred or so, in particular, further species of such genera as
Acrotrichis, Meligethes and Atomaria. Such very generally distributed species
as Trechus obtusus Er., Harpalus affinis (Shrank), Cercyon lateralis (Marsh.),
Tachyporus pusillus Grav. and Rugilus rufipes Germar, are almost certain to be
found.
However, the special character of the Epping Forest beetle fauna lies less in
the total number of species to be found there than in the many species which are
absent from the surrounding areas, including fragments of woodland and
parkland. Species recorded from Epping Forest sensu Buck (1955), but
unknown in Essex outside of this general area of the Forest (that is "greater"
Epping Forest and adjoining woodlands), are listed in Table 6. Incorporated in
this table are data concerning the recorded presence of these species in a
selection of other English forest and parkland areas, dates (in three classes) of
Epping Forest records, and habitats. It will be seen that almost half of the 195
species are associated directly with mature or overmature forest trees, while
several others are species of the forest floor. Including Epping Forest, woodland
and parkland occupy only some 2Vi % of the surface area of the county of Essex
and is extremely fragmented (see Hammond, 1974, for a fuller discussion). It is,
perhaps, not surprising that so many woodland species are known, in Essex,
from only the Epping Forest area, the only sizeable tract of primary woodland.
It should be noted in passing, however, that some of the more local woodland
species, including a few which are generally characteristic of Old Forest con-
ditions have been found to occur in other Essex woods and parks (see Table 7).
The most notable of these areas are Weald Park and Thornton Park (both near
Brentwood), Hylands Park near Chelmsford, parkland and woodland around
Danbury in mid-Essex, woods in the Colchester area and Hatfield Forest.
To detail all of the emphases and oddities which make the complement of
woodland species to be found in Epping Forest different in sum from that of
other English primary forest areas would require much more space than is
available to me here. Some of the more interesting features will be apparent
from studying Tables 6 and 7. Certain groups of wood-feeding species, e.g.
Cerambycidae, are undoubtedly well represented in the Forest, more especially
those which favour the tree species (hornbeam, beech, oak) best represented as
mature individuals. The representation of species living, at least as larvae, in
fungi, whether on trees and dead wood, or the forest floor, is also notable. For
example, 9 of 12 British species of Mycetophagidae, 14 of 21 species of Cisidae,
etc., have been found in the Forest. Perhaps more impressive than the numbers
of wood and fungus-inhabiting species is the wide distribution within the Forest
and local abundance of some of them. Species which, although to be found in a
number of other English forests and woods, are probably to be most readily
observed and collected at Epping include Quedius scitus, Q. ventralis, Tillus
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