80
The Essex Naturalist
G. (Gorytes) quadrifasciatus (Fabr.)
Nest burrow is constructed in soil, often quite heavy. Froghoppers of the genus
Philaenus are recorded as prey.
East Tilbury Silt Lagoons provide the only known Essex record, of a single
female on 20th July 1995.
G. (Lestiphorus) bicinctus (Rossius) -Notable B
Nests in light soils, stocking the cells with various froghoppers.
Taken in a garden near the town [Colchester] late July/early August 1902
(Harwood 1902). Harwood (1884) writing on the Aculeata of the Colchester
area proudly records capturing a male in 1882 and a female on 1 August 1883
but fails to say where! Listed for both North and South Essex by Falk (1991)
without details. We have only found it ourselves at the East Ham N.R. in 1984
and on Dagenham Chase during 1994.
Q. (Dienoplus) tumidus (Panzer)
Nests in sand. Prey is cicadellid and cercopid froghoppers.
East Tilbury Silt Lagoons and Colne Point are the only known Essex sites for
this sphecid.
Argogorytes fargeii (Shuckard) - Notable A
Nests in the ground and preys on nymphs of Philaenus which it extracts from the
"cuckoo-spit".
Listed for the Colchester area (as Gorytes campestris) by Harwood (1884)
without further detail. Listed for North Essex before 1970 in Falk (1991). We
have no additional records to hand.
A. mystaceus (L.)
Nests in the ground and preys on nymphs of Philaenus which it extracts from the
"cuckoo-spit".
Listed for the Colchester area by Harwood (1884) without further detail. We
have more recent records only from Lords Bushes in Epping Forest (M Hanson),
Warwick Wood, Aveley in 1987 and from Mill Wood Pit in 1994.
SUBFAMILY PHILANTHINAE
Cerceris arenaria (L.)
Nests are dug in sandy soil and provisioned with curculionid weevils.
At raspberry flowers etc. (Harwood 1884). Fingringhoe Wick, Grays Chalk
Quarry, Mill Wood Pit, Ferry Fields, East Tilbury Silt Lagoons, Broom Hill
(West Tilbury), Mucking Heath and Linford Sand Pit are the sites from which
we have recent records of this species.
C. quadricincta (Panzer) - RDB 1
Nest in sandy or clay soil. The adults prey on curculionid weevils.
Richards (1980) gives this species as "apparently locally common" in North
Essex, but there are no further details. Falk (1991) records this species in