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The Essex Naturalist
a further five records from widely scattered localities in North Essex. We have
records from another six localities that we have not yet been able to check but
which are likely to be S. debile.
S. westwoodi Westwood
The late J C Felton determined a single dealate queen from Broom Hill (West
Tilbury) as S. westwoodi (s.s.) and this remains the only confirmed record in the
county.
Tetramorium caespitum (L.)
Donisthorpe (1927) gives Southend, Shoeburyness and Walton-on-Naze as
localities in Essex and these are shown in Barrett (1979). Collingwood (1979)
describes the species as tending to be coastal in North Europe but also inland on
heath and on the open borders of woodland. We know of no recent records but
Barrett shows a post-1961 record for the Walton Naze square (TM22).
SUBFAMILY FORMICINAE
Genus: Formica. Four of the eleven British species are recorded for Essex and
we have recent records for three of these.
Formica cunicularia Latreille
A very common and widespread ant in the county, mainly in open sparsely
vegetated habitats near the coast. There are recent records from 37 localities
and it may turn out to be under-recorded inland.
Formica fusca L.
Widely distributed in the county but we ate sure that F. cunicularia is
misidentified as this species and we have done so ourselves. There are records
from the Epping Forest area (Hanson 1992) and PH in 1989 and 1991 and
confirmed recent records from eleven other localities, all in heathy habitats such
as acid grassland, heather heathland or heathy woodlands except for one most
interesting occurrence at Barking. Most other records are likely to be suspect.
The Barking occurrence (coll. by S ] Etheridge in 1994) was from
meadow/grassland on a very sandy soil, unlike the surrounding PFA substratum.
This post-industrial site is also of interest because of the occurrence there of the
heathland bee Colletes succinctus and its cleptoparasite Epeolus cruciger (coll. in
1990 by L Clemans and det. by J Felton).
F. rufa L.
The Wood Ant has probably always been very localised in Essex, but the
cessation of coppicing in many woods seems to be responsible for its apparent
disappearance from north-east Essex, where there are old records held by the
Colchester Natural History Museum for Manwood Bridge about 1975,
Weeleyhall Wood (1980, Kate Hawkins) together with an undated and
unlocalised record for TL93. J Bowdrey failed to locate the species in Weeleyhall
Wood in 1993, noting that conditions appeared rather overgrown compared to
its South Essex sites (pers. comm.). An old occurrence for Epping Forest is