The Essex Naturalist
73
Listed for the Colchester area hy Harwood (1884) without further detail. This is
the most widely reported Essex Ectemnius species, with a large number of records
affecting 12 of the county's ten-kilometre squares.
E. (Hypocrabro) rubicola (Dufour & Perris)
Nests in dead wood or sometimes in stems of plants, with Carduus being the
only plant positively recorded in Britain. Preys on Diptera, with Acroceridae
featuring prominently.
Widespread records from Rowhedge (G Else and M Edwards), Glemsford Pits,
Wormingford Mere, St Osyth, Mill Wood Pit, Grays Chalk Quarry, Ferry Fields,
Dagenham Chase, Orsett and the Fobbing Marshes indicate this to be a
common Essex sphecid.
E. (Metacrabro) cephalotes (Olivier)
Nests are tunnelled into soft, rotten wood and the larvae are provisioned with
hoverflies (Syrphidae) and also Muscidae.
Benfleet Downs, 1985 (C W Plant), and Great Saling, 1989 (M Hanson),
appear to be our only records.
E. (Metacrabro) lituratus (Panzer)
Generally a woodland species, nesting in dead timber and preying on flies of the
family Muscidae.
Grays Chalk Quarry and the nearby Mill Wood Pit are the only recorded Essex
sites since 1989, though it was common at Belhus Park, Aveley in 1984 and at
Fingringhoe Wick in 1986 (M Edwards).
Lindenius albilabris (Fabr.)
Nest tunnels are constructed in the soil, especially sand and are provisioned
either with mirid bugs (Heteroptera) or flies of the family Chloropidae, either
mixed or of one type exclusively.
On flowers of Anthemis cotula etc. (Harwood 1884). Evidently a widespread and
locally quite common sphecid in South Essex, less frequent in the north, perhaps
because of poor recording effort. Recorded from numerous sites in recent years.
L. panzeri (Van der Linden)
As with the preceding species, this is a ground nester. The prey is almost
exclusively chloropid flies.
We have records of males from Wanstead Flats, Bush Wood, Leyton Flats and
Rising Sun Wood at South Woodford in 1984 and of a female from Mill Wood,
Grays in 1994.
Entomognathus brevis (Van der Linden)
Nests are constructed in sandy soil and the adult preys exclusively on beetles,
especially Chrysomelidae.
Listed for the Colchester area by Harwood (1884) without further detail.
Current records are largely in South Essex but also herald from Rowhedge (G