The Essex Naturalist
19
Colin Plant's Six-belted Clearwings from Dolphin Quarry Purfleet and Mill
Wood Pit, Grays, during July are most welcome. This appears to be a scarce
insect in Essex and one easily overlooked. Sweeping a net through bird's-foot
trefoil is one method of finding it. Two nationally rare moths resident in Essex
have again turned up in a northern wood. These are The Triangle Heterogenea
asella and the Olive Crescent Tristateles emortualis, both at light on 29th July.
New and interesting Essex gall records
J P Bowdrey
12 Sparrows Corner, Harwich Road. Great Oakley, Essex CO12 5AA
Hymenoptera: Cynipidae
Cynipid galls were not much in evidence until April when a visit to
Michaelstowe Hall, Ramsey added Andricus albopunctatus, A. quadrilineatus and
Neuroterus aprilinus to the records for TM23. In the same month A. inflator and
A. quadrilineatus were discovered at Marks Hall Arboretum, new to TL82.
On a small, roadside oak at Little Bentley (TM 1025) male catkins bore galls
of what appeared to be A. callidoma, a scarce species which, according to the
literature, frequents the tops of mature oaks. Wasps had already emerged from
most of the galls; one adult was obtained to enable the determination to be
confirmed. The galls of A. callidoma bear white, cotton-wool like outgrowths but
never attain the size of the eye-catching galls of A. quercusramuli, which were
also present on the same tree.
In August a few galls of Aulacidea follioti were found on Sonchus asper growing
amongst concrete slabs on the sea wall at Beaumont-cum-Moze (TM2024). This
is the third Essex locality for the species which was added to the British list in
1994 when adults were reared from material collected at Langenhoe ranges near
Colchester in 1993 (Bowdrey 1994). The species seems to favour coastal habitats
and the large, irregular swellings induced by the larvae are quite noticeable.
Galls of both generations of Neuroterus tricolor, the scarcest of the spangle
galls, were again present in good numbers at Great Oakley (TM1827). There are
only two recent records of this species for Essex.
At Soils Wood, Great Oakley (TM2028), in November, a single gall of A.
nudus was located on an oak bud. It is hoped to rear the adult to confirm the
identification. A gall was found at the same site in 1989 but was not reared.
These are apparently the only Essex records.
Coleoptera: Curculionidae
Galls of the nationally notable weevil Gymnetron villosulum were found on an
aquatic Veronica in a ditch at Rushey Mead reserve (TL4919) in July, bringing
the total of recent Essex records to five.