most remarkable expansion of its range in the last two or three seasons
(BWARS Newsletter, Spring 1993). It certainly seems widespread and
numerous in a range of sites in Essex during 1992 and 1993, including
Walton Naze undercliffs, Bradwell Brook (TL9905), The Cliff near
Burnham-on-Crouch, Sandpit Hill Hadleigh (TQ8086), Chadwell and
Linford.
The Rare (RDB3) Nomada fulvicornis Fabricius is a cleptoparasite of the
mining bees Andrena bimaculata, A. pilipes and A. tibialis. I collected
one female (det. John Felton) at Walton Naze undercliffs in July 1992
where there is a strong colony of A. pilipes, and another female (conf.
J. Felton) at Grays Chalk Quarry in August 1993. The species was
formerly widespread and locally frequent in some parts of southern
Britain but today is very scarce with post-1970 records known for about
20 sites. The severity of decline suggests that in addition to habitat
loss and degradation other factors such as climatic change are partly
responsible (Falk, 1991).
The Blue Carpenter bee in Essex
At the end of August 1993 I visited Mill Wood Pit near the famous
"Lakeside' in Thurrock and spent a couple of hours looking for
hymenoptera. A male Blue Carpenter bee Ceratina cyanea Kirby
(national status rare RDB3) was found resting on a yellow composite
flower. Two further visits in the following two weeks found males and
females to be present in some numbers. These are apparently the first
records for the county for a very long time. There are specimens in the
Harwood collection at the Natural History Museum collected from
"Colchester" between 1894 and 1901 (George Else, pers. comm.).
The species has seemingly disappeared from large parts of its former
range and today is largely confined to sites on or adjacent to the South
Downs of W. Sussex, where it is locally frequent (Falk, 1991). The bee
favours a variety of warm situations, including chalk grassland,
particularly south-facing slopes, abandoned sand and gravel pits, waste
ground, heathland and open rides in woodland. Cooler and more shaded
north-facing sites and exposed situations all seem to be avoided.
Usually there is a requirement for clumps of bramble or rose bushes, the
broken dead pithy stems being used for nesting and hibernation sites.
The Mill Wood Pit site consists of a deep chalk pit above which there is
a large area of sandy ground, the chalk coming to the surface at the
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