Fig. 1. Oniscus asellus one of the Two aquatic 'woodlice' are recorded from Forest
commoner woodlice reported from Epping Ponds, Asellus aquaticus can be found in most ponds.
Forest (MH) even those full of decaying beech leaves. It seems to
be tolerant of a wide range of habitat conditions.
Asellus aquaticus (L.) Lords Bushes (Hanson, 1983);
Earls Path Pond. 12th November, 1984 (J.B.); Alder
Pond. Fairmead, 12th March, 1985(J.B.);GoldingsHill
Pond, 12th June, 1985 (J.B.); Stream at bottom of
Yardley Hill, 6th July, 1985 (JB).
Asellus meridianus Racovitza Pond, Gilbert Slade,
25th April, 1926 (D. J. Scourfield) (in P.E.M., 15873);
Alder Pond, Fairmead, 12th March, 1985 (J.B.);
Knighton Pond, 14th June, 1985 (JB.).
Other Crustacea
Many other Crustacea of interest have been reported
from the Forest. The Fairy Shrimp (Chirocephalus
diaphanus) perhaps the most attractive of the British
freshwater Crustacea, was recorded from near Epping
prior to 1850 by Edward Doubleday. It is a species of
transient pools and nothing more was seen of it until
1918 when D. J. Scourfield reported it from a temporary
pool on Bell Common (Scourfield, 1926). Gammarus
pulex a laterally flattened amphipod Crustacean has
been widely recorded in the Forest brooks (Boreham et
al. 1988; Boreham, 1989). The related North American species Crangonyx pseudogracilis was first
found in Britain about 1934 (from Hackney) and was subsequently first reported from Epping Forest
in 1958 and in 1959 it was found to be established in several ponds - Baldwins Hill. Lost, Goldings
Hill. Earls Path, Strawberry Hill and Wake Valley (Ingle. 1959). John Bratton subsequently reported
this species in 1984 from several of the previously mentioned ponds and also from Fairmead Alder
Pond in 1985.
In 1915 D. J Scourfield described a new species of Copepod he had found repeatedly, free-living
in water in rot-holes in trees (never in ponds) in the Forest. The species, named as Moraria arboricola,
he first noted in 1904 and exhibited the specimens at an Essex Field Club meeting in 1911 (EN XVI
p. 247). In 1926 Scourfield reported the species from Felbrigg Woods in Norfolk, the New Forest
and Savernake Forest. At least in the first two mentioned sites and at Epping, Beech pollards are
present. The species may thus be found to be a typical species of old wood-pastures (Scourfield,
1926).
References
Boreham. S., Rostron, J. and Birch, P. (1988) Preliminary observations on the dynamics of macro-invertebrate communities in two Epping
Forest streams. Lon. Nat. No. 67: p. 69-74.
Boreham. S. (1989) Observations on the seasonal variation of a macro-invertebrate community in an Epping Forest stream. Lon. Nat, No. 68:
p. 63-66.
Edney, E. B. (1954) British Woodlice. Linn. Soc. Synopses of the British Fauna.
Frankel. B. (Distribution of Trichoniscus pusillus Brandt Crustacea: Isopoda on Logs in Epping Forest. Ent. Mon mag. Vol. 115 p. 201-204.
Hanson, M. W. (1983) Lords Bushes: the history and ecology of an Epping Forest woodland. Essex Naturalist (N.S.) No. 7 p. 49.
Ingle, R. W. (1959) On the occurrence of the Amphipod Crustacean, Eucrangonyx gracilis (S. 1. Smith), in Epping Forest, Essex Naturalist
Vol. XXX p. 199-200.
Scourfield. D. J. (1926) The Fresh-water Crustacea of Essex with special reference to the Epping Forest District (In Hutchings. G, E. (Ed.)
Essex An Outline Scientific Survey, p. 98-103).
106