The Essex Naturalist
9
Since 1988, feedback from readers of the Recording Scheme newsletter has
enabled the resolution of a great many problems and has enabled us to arrive at
a situation where the production of hopefully simple to use but accurate keys is
possible. These are currently in the last stages of production and will hopefully
appear in late 1997.
The British Fauna
Confusion has arisen over the years from the steadfast opinion of British workers
that all the green coloured "green lacewings" should be placed in the single
genus Chrysopa. This in spite of a far more rapid progress on the continent. The
old name Chrysopa is, in fact, more properly composed of six genera, namely
Cunctochrysa, Chrysopidia, Chrysoperla, Nineta, Dichochrysa and Chrysopa. The
name Dichochrysa is a very recent addition and may be unfamiliar to a larger
number of entomologists. It arises from a split by Yang and Yang (1990) of the
former genus Mallada (=Anisochrysa), with all British Mallada species so far
known being referable to it. Other changes have also been made. Earlier British
workers regarded Conwentzia pineticola as a mere form of C. psociformis, and
Dichochrysa prasina as a subspecies of D. ventralis; neither view has been shared
by workers elsewhere in the world. Numerous other changes have also been
made over the years and to add even further to the confusion, two species appear
to have colonised Britain, whilst a further five at least have been here quite
undetected for many years. These are indicated in Table 1.
Table 1: Species of lacewing recorded in Britain since the publication of Fraser's key
by the Royal Entomological Society in 1959
Species
MEGALOPTERA
SIALIDAE
Sialis nigripes
NEUROPTERA
CONIOPTERYGIDAE
Coniopteryx esbenpeterseni
C. lentiae
Semidalis pseudouncinata
HEMEROBIIDAE
Hemerobius fenestratus
CHRYSOPIDAE
Chrysopa commata
Cunctochrysa bellifontensis
Nineta inpunctata
MYRMELEONTIDAE
Euroleon nostras
Literature Reference Comments
Barnard, 1977
Overlooked resident
Plant 6k Hynd, 1991
Hynd, 1989
Plant, 1992
Overlooked resident
Overlooked resident
Probable recent colonist
Plant & Barnard, 1988 Probable recent colonist
Kis & Ujhelyi, 1965
Plant, 1993
Plant, 1996
Cottle et al.
Split from C. phyllochroma
Status uncertain
Overlooked resident
Overlooked resident