The Essex Naturalist
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Harvey, F.R. & Plant, C.W. , 1996. A provisional list of the bees, wasps and ants (Hymenoptera: Aculeata)
of Essex. Essex Naturalist 13 (New series): 43-115.
Harwood, B.S., 1902. Aculeates at Colchester in 1902. Entomologist's Monthly Magazine 38: 266-267.
Harwood, W.H., 1884. The Aculeata Hymenoptera of the neighbourhood of Colchester. Entomologist's
Monthly Magazine 20: 211-213.
Morgan, D., 1984. Cuckoo-wasps, Hymenoptera, Chrysididae. Handbooks for the identification of British
Insects Vol. 6, Part 5, Royal Entomological Society of London.
Richards, O.W., 1980. Scolioidea, Vespoidea and Sphecoidea. Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects.
Royal Entomological Society.
Shirt, D.B., 1987. British Red Data Boob: 2. Insects. Nature Conservancy Council.
Some interesting spider records for 1997 and 1998
P.R. Harvey
32 Lodge Lane, Grays, Essex RMI6 2YP.
Since the last Recorder report there have been two new county records for
Essex, in the form of the Theridiid spider Episinus truncatus collected by Roger
Payne at Belton Hills on the 19th September 1997 and the jumping spider
Synageles venator collected at Barking PFA lagoons between the 13th May and
the 24th June 1998 (Harvey, 1998).
As usual the Essex Spider Group has held various field meetings,
concentrating on filling in gaps in county coverage by recording in tetrads with
no spider records at all. Members of the group have also undertaken their own
fieldwork and this has resulted in many records of interest, several of which are
mentioned below.
Roger Payne collected a female of the RDB2 jumping spider Heliophanus auratus
on a sandy beach area near Bradwell Nuclear Power Station on the 5th June 1998.
This species is only known in Britain from several tiny areas of shingle in the
Blackwater Estuary. It was originally recorded at Colne Point in the late 1950s and
early 1960s but despite searches since it has not been rediscovered at this site.
Other important records include a male Achaearanea riparia found in bushes
overhanging a remnant of borrowdyke at Thorpe-le-Soken Hamford Water on
the 4th June 1998 by Ray Ruffell, only the second record for the county.
Phil Butler has collected a male Theridion pinastri from the Silt lagoons at
Rainham Marshes. This RDBK spider is only known in Britain from a handful of
heathland and ancient woodland sites (Jones, 1992; Harvey et al, 1993; Harvey
&. Carr, 1996). David Carr and the author have found the species several times
on the foliage of large old oak trees at the edge of woodland clearings or in the
open. This record from silt lagoons is puzzling, but simply adds to the increasing
data that underlines the importance of the lagoons for invertebrates. Essex
contains very interesting populations of a unique Saltmarsh form of the
heathland crab spider Philodromus histrio and it is possible that the silt lagoons
develop a vegetation with heathland structural characteristics that can be
exploited by some of these species.