Similarly once a particular habitat disappears the associated fauna goes as well, the
insects listed below typically found on heaths and heathy commons have in most cases
not been recorded in Epping Forest since the 19th or early 20th century (15).
ODONATA LEPIDOPTERA
Sympetrum scoticum Boloria selene (Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary)
DIPTERA Coleophora potentillae
Asilus crabroniformis Diacrisia sannio (Clouded Buff)
COLEOPTERA Euphydryas aurinia (Marsh Fritillary)
Agonum sexpunctatum Oncocera palumbella
Cassida hemisphaerica Plebejus argus (Silver-studded Blue)
Trachys trogolodytes
Vertebrates too are similarly affected, there are few recent sightings of adders in the
Forest (15) possibly due to the decreasing amount of heath and grassy plain available to
them. Henry Doubleday, the great Epping naturalist, recorded the Stonechat, a classic
bird of gorse-clad heaths (30) as being periodically common in Epping Forest (11), today
it no longer breeds and is to be seen only as an uncommon winter visitor. The hobby,
another bird often associated with heathland is recorded as nesting in the Epping Forest
area in 1846-7. Lapwings were recorded nesting on Fairmead Bottom and near the
Wake Arms in the 1860's: evidence that these areas were considerably more open and
extensive than they are today (15).
The old pollard trees, that other great legacy of the wood-pasture tradition in
Epping Forest, are an equally valuable habitat. Although atmospheric pollution has
removed many of the characteristic lichens, pollards, are still an important micro-
habitat for invertebrates. Numerous species of beetle are known to be associated with
the dead and decaying wood (15) and many flies also rely on this micro-habitat (64).
Rearing from rot-holes in old beech pollards have provided records of the following rare
or uncommon Diptera from Epping Forest (most are associated with ancient woodland)
the Dolichopodids Systenus leucurus and S. scholtzi, the magnificent crane-fly
Ctenophora pectinicornis and the superb bee-mimicing hover-fly Pocota personata;
other flies associated with rot-holes and decaying wood and taken in the Forest include
Mallota cimbiciformis, Myolepta luteola, Phaonia trigonalis, Systenus pallipes,
Xylomyia maculata. Xylota abiens, Xylotamima lenta and X. nemorum.
Pollards also provide a favoured nesting site for the redstart which may be a classic
bird of working wood-pasture, it favours big mature trees in open areas. Today much of
Epping Forest would be unsuitable habitat for this species, dense beech woodland casts
too deep a shade and lacking a diverse flora also provides little in the way of insect food.
Marshy areas and bogs have also suffered in Epping Forest. Connaught Waters,
was made on the site of a huge marsh shortly after the Epping Forest Act was passed.
Sadly, I can find no record of the flora which existed there. Deliberate drainage, in-
vasion by unchecked birch scrub and overshadowing has also contributed to the decline
of this valuable habitat in Epping Forest.
Superimposed on the consequences of a disused system of management, and an
unsympathetic modern one, are other deleterious factors: increasing pollution (the
bryophyte and particularly the lichen flora are greatly impoverished); large numbers of
visitors at weekends and other times of the year often to a few over-used areas (High
Beach, Wanstead Flats and Connaught Waters for example) can cause problems at
these sites. Changes in climate too can be deleterious, it is thought this may be the
deciding factor in the dramatically reduced British summering populations of the red-
65