"MESOLEPIDOPTERA"
From this point onwards the list takes on a new dimension. The families that
follow, which for convenience I have called the mesolepidoptera, have
attracted much more attention than those so far covered. Names of recorders
hitherto seldom heard, Vaughan, Thurnall, Huggins, will feature prominently
alongside those which are already familiar. There is also a shift of coverage
towards the southern vice-county. Thurnall operated over the whole of the
south, but principally the south-west; the other two confined their activities
almost exclusively to the south-east and their records, together with those of
Whittle, make the Southend district one of the most fully recorded regions in
the whole of Britain for the Tortricoidea, Pyraloidea and Pterophoroidea. The
southern vice-county has marginally the richer lepidopterous fauna, but the
superiority is exaggerated on the maps which follow by an imbalance in
recording.
COCHYLIDAE
Mainly medium-sized moths with relatively broad wings. Many have the
ground colour of the forewing yellow, orange or whitish with a darker,
sometimes metallic-mixed pattern of attractive appearance. Most of the larvae
feed in stems and roots, or spun flowers or seedheads. Some of the adults fly in
sunshine but most are crepuscular. Of the 48 species on the British list, 38 have
been recorded in Essex. Additions are unlikely.
Hysterosia inopiana (Haw.) Res., 1889-1977. Pulicaria. Loc. f.c.
VC 18. 40/50 Between Epping and Stanford Rivers; 68 East Horndon (Thurnall, 1902);
Laindon (AT); 78 Benfleet (HCH; KRT & JEC); 79 Battlesbridge (HCH); 88 *Leigh-on-Sea
(Vaughan, 1889); Southend (VCH); 89 Rochford; Stambridge. VC 19. 80 Ulting (HCH); 02
Colchester (VCH).
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