and then repeating the process some 2 inches lower clown. The chosen stem was two to
three feet away from the edge of the bare mud of the former pond. The flight period in
Essex is from late June to mid-September.
J. F. Stephens (1835-7) gave Wanstead as a site for this species, and reported it as
common in the vicinity of Epping. It subsequently appeared on F. A. Walker's (1897) list
for Wanstead Park, and Harwood (1903) added that it 'has recently been found at St.
Osyth'. The Campion brothers apparently did not find the species regularly within
Epping Forest, but reported it abundant on Coopersale Common. E. E. Syms (1929)
included it as a Forest species, and it appears regularly in C. O. Hammond's
unpublished records for the Forest, as well as being reported by him from Benfleet on
July 18th. 1937. along with L. dryas. E. B. Pinniger observed it in Epping Forest in the
1930s (Pinniger. 1933 and 1938). and C. Longfield (1949 b) gave the Epping Forest
Ponds. Coopersale Common and Waltham Abbey as well as 'brackish coastal ditches'
as Essex sites for this species. It was also reported from Epping Forest. Warley and
Benfleet by Pinniger, Syms and Ward (1950). and D. A. Ashwell collected it at Hatfield
Forest in 1940.
This historical record suggests that the species was always somewhat locally
distributed in Essex, though sometimes common where it occurred. Recent survey
evidence suggests it remains a rather local species, widely but thinly distributed
throughout south, east and central Essex. Its scarcity in the north-west indicates a lack
of suitable habitat. Since 1980 it has been recorded from thirty-one out of a possible
fifty-seven 10 km. squares in Essex.
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