16 The Essex Naturalist
Whilst Essex may only share the glory with Surrey for the discovery of this
species, it can however, lay sole claim to fame over the startling discovery of a
large, green lacewing new to Britain. Nineta inpunctata Reuter is one of our
largest green lacewings. It is only known from the Western Palaearctic region
and then from only 15 sites in all, of which one, Eastend Wood near Elsenham,
is in Essex. A single female example was taken there at a mercury vapour light
moth trap hy myself on 26th June 1989 (Plant 1996). It had remained
unlabelled in my collection until recently when I needed to re-examine some
material rather more critically for the new identification keys I was preparing for
the Field Studies Council.
Apart from these two rather spectacular discoveries, however, recording of the
Essex lacewing fauna is progressing rather more slowly and steadily. The overall
county list contains 50 species, of which 46 have been recorded since 1979.
Thus, Essex ranks fifth on the British Isles county list for number of species
(Plant 1994), though this may be due in no small part to the fact that most
other areas of the country are very poorly recorded.
The recorded Essex species are as follows. Species flagged "**" have not been
recorded in the county in recent years:

MEGALOPTERA
SIALIDAE
Sialis lutaria
RAPHIDIOPTERA
RAPHIDIIDAE
Phaeostigma notata
Subilla confinis
Xanthostigma xanthostigma
NEUROPTERA
CONIOPTERYGIDAE
Coniopteryx borealis
C. esbenpeterseni
C. tineiformis
Conwentzia pineticola
Conwentzia psociformis
Semidalis aleyrodiformis
S. pseudouncinata
SISYRIDAE
Sisyra fuscata
OSMYLIDAE
Osmylus fulvicephalus
HEMEROBIIDAE
Hemerobius atrifrons **
H. humulinus
H. lutescens
H. micans
H. nitidulus
H. pini
H. stigma
Micromus angulatus
M. paganus
M. variegatus
Psectra diptera
Sympherobius elegans
S. pellucidus
S. pygmaeus
Wesmaelius concinnus
W. nervosus (= betulinus)
W. quadrifascuitus **
W. subnebulosus
CHRYSOPIDAE
Chrysopa commata
C. dorsalis **
C. pallens (= septempunctata)
C. phyllochroma **
Chrysoperla carnea
Chrysopidia ciliata
Cunctochrysa albolineata
Cunctochrysa bellifontensis
Dichochrysa flavifrons
D. prasina
D. ventralis
Nineta flava
N. inpunctata
N. vittata
Nothochrysa capitata