It was in the same year, 1937, that Hammond also observed A. mixta ovipositing in
mud at the edge of a ditch at Benfleet, and H. C. Huggins (1939) reported the species
from south-east Essex at about that time. There are extant specimens collected by D. A.
Ashwell in Hatfield Forest in 1940, and by E. S. Brown from Manningtree station in
1947. Notes prepared by Pinniger for the Cuckoo Pits survey in 1942 indicate that the
species had occurred with 'some regularity and frequency' in previous years, and that
oviposition had been observed in the area. Longfield (1949b) still considered A. mixta to
be scarce as a breeding species, giving Epping Forest as a breeding locality. She also
mentioned that the species had been recorded from Hainault Forest, Ongar Park,
Coopersale Common and Chingford, but there is no indication whether these were
reports of breeding populations.
Despite the evident incompleteness of this historical picture, a pattern does emerge. It
seems unlikely that A. mixta was a breeding species in Essex before the closing years of
the 19th century. At about that time it appears to have become established on the coast.
By the mid 1930's (possibly before) it was established on the Thames estuary as a
breeding species. In Epping Forest it was probably not a breeding species until 1936 or
1937, but appears to have been so. in increasing numbers, since that time. The spread of
records from 1940 onwards suggest that it may also have colonised other parts of Essex
at about that time, too. This compares with the considerably later extension of range
(1973 onwards) reported by S. Holland in Gloucestershire.
During the period of the present survey, A. mixta was recorded from a total of fifty-one
10 km. squares in Essex, making it probably the most ubiquitous of all our hawker
dragonflies. Despite several searches for it, it has not so far been recorded from the
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