The Essex Naturalist
19
usually in dry grassland, this species seems more sparse than actually rare; most
records are of single individuals, as were both these 1996 records. There are
other recent records for sites in the south-west of the county, as well as for sea
banks further east.
Drymus pumilio Puton (Lygaeidae): Sawbridgeworth Marsh, TL491160, 27th
March 1996, P. Kirby. By far the greater part of Sawbridgeworth Marsh lies
within Hertfordshire. During a visit to the site, I beat a single D. pumilio from a
stack of cut sedge in the Hertfordshire part of the site. Enthusiastic to generate
Essex records while on the site, I then sieved plant litter from tussocky and
rather coarse vegetation in the thin fringe of Essex ground close to the northern
margin of the site. Remarkably, for the habitat was not superficially promising
and it was an act of pure optimism to make the search, I discovered not only a
second D. pumilio but also a specimen of Acompus rufipes (Wolff) and several
specimens of Scolopostethus puberulus Horvath (see following entries). These
records are to some extent misleading, for they almost certainly represent
individuals which had not yet left their overwintering sites and which would
return to breed "over the border". While A. rufipes and S. puberulus are good
wetland species, the ecology of D. pumilio is rather obscure. It is often (but not
always) found amongst fairly deep moss, and often in the shelter of scrub. It is
possible that this species has a genuine association with the coarser and
somewhat drier vegetation towards the margins of the site.
Acompus rufipes (Wolff) (Lygaeidae): Sawbridgeworth Marsh, TL491160,
27th March 1997, P. Kirby; Thorley Flood Pound, TL491158, 27th March 1996,
P. Kirby. These are the first recent Essex records of which I am aware, though it
is recorded for the county, without date or locality, in Massee (1955). This is a
local species nationally, but one with a quite wide distribution. It feeds on
valerian and marsh valerian, typically where there are large populations of the
host, which gives good grounds for its localisation. However, it is an easily
missed species. The adults are mostly ground-dwelling, and the species is most
readily seen as nymphs, which often congregate on the flowers to feed. However,
since there is no key available for the identification of nymphs thus found, this
potentially fruitful source of records is rather poorly utilised.
Scolopostethus puberulus (Horvath) (Lygaeidae): Sawbridgeworth Marsh,
TQ491160, 27th March 1996, P. Kirby; Thorley Flood Pound, TL489182, 27th
March 1996, P. Kirby; Little Hallingbury Marsh, TL492171, 27th March 1996,
P. Kirby. All records from tussocks of sedges and/or grasses. These appear to be
the first records of this species from Essex since the early years of the century,
when E.A. Butler caught it near the Wake Arms, Epping Forest in 1902 and
1904 (Groves 1965).
Agnocoris reclairei Wagner (Miridae): Essex Filter Beds, TQ361867, 10th
August 1996, D.J.P. Miller; a single individual beaten from willows (Salix