The Essex Naturalist 63
Recording coverage
There are records from all 58 ten kilometre squares covering the county,
including the tiny area of Essex within TQ47. The coverage of recording within
the county can be crudely judged from distribution maps for common species
such as Myrmica ruginodis, M. scabrinodis and Lasius niger. The Essex maps for
these species show a reasonably comprehensive distribution across the county on
both a 10km square and tetrad basis.
The number of species recorded for each 10km or tetrad square provide.-.
another estimate of coverage. A coincidence map for Essex ant species (fig. 1)
shows the concentration of species recorded in South Essex and to a lesser
extent around Colchester. Whilst this may be partly due to recorder bias,
fieldwork including the use of pitfall trapping has been carried out at many sites
across the county.
Fig. 1 The coincidence of ant species recorded in Essex
Biodiversity in Essex
One of the main reasons why traditional agriculture in the past may have
provided such a good landscape for many invertebrates and other wildlife is the
complex of unimproved grasslands, pasture, heathlands, woodlands mixed with
small disturbed areas created by traditional practices. Today our national fauna
has been decimated by modern farming practices and the huge loss of
unimproved habitats to the plough.