The Essex Naturalist
83
(1896) - note that Saunders's work post-dates Harwood's list - or Ectemnius
(Metacrabro) cephalotes sensu Olivier (1791).
C. kollari Dhlb.
"Of this novelty (see Ent. Mo. Mag. vol. xix, p 246, April 1883) I have taken a
nice series of both sexes on Angelica flowers" (Harwood 1884).
APOIDEA - BEES
Bees are important pollinators of flowers and often have very exacting ecological
needs. The females of many species collect pollen from a limited range of plant
species, sometimes even with an obligate association with just one plant. In
addition many species require warm, south-facing slopes or banks with bare
ground for nesting and it is this combination of flower-rich areas with suitable
nesting areas that modern intensive agriculture has hit hard. The loss of
unimproved grasslands and the replacement of traditional management regimes
has had a huge impact on available habitat, particularly inland where not even
sea walls, or clifftop grassland and clifftop heathlands have survived. It is likely
that the changes in the British countryside have caused a greater decline in our
aculeate Hymenoptera fauna than in any other invertebrate group.
Despite this bees remain a sadly neglected group, perhaps mainly due to the
difficulties in identification presented by the lack of modern and comprehensive
keys and identification guides. This situation should change with the
publication soon by the Ray Society of a guide to British bees by G Else.
BWARS (Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Scheme) also publishes a starter
pack and regular newsletters. It holds field meetings and an annual indoor
meeting at which interested people can meet.
In Essex, the bee fauna has clearly declined enormously since the time of the
Harwoods and Nicholson. This is probably largely due to the effects of
agricultural improvements, in particular the loss of old flower-rich grasslands by
improvement with fertilisers and herbicides, reseeding or conversion to arable
and the use of pesticides. Some bees that have not been recorded since the time
of Harwood or Nicholson have an obligate or close association with plants that
are now rare in the county. The loss of heathland, degradation and
coniferisation of ancient woodlands, improvement and raising of sea walls,
development and pressure on beach and coastal cliff areas and the ever spiralling
loss of habitat to housing, industrial and road developments have all had an
equally serious effect. Habitats that do remain are increasingly isolated and the
biodiversity of their fauna suffers.
However fieldwork by the authors and others since 1990 has shown that an
important fauna still survives, especially at some coastal sites and in the much
threatened East Thames Corridor (Harvey 1995a) where there are populations
of many nationally scarce and rare species at important sites such as Broom Hill
(West Tilbury), East Tilbury, Ferry Fields, Mill Wood Pit and Mucking Heath