in the County can be found. Even then, there were sporadic records often mentioned in
passing in various journals such as the Essex Naturalist. J.A. Whellan did record
Metrioptera roeselii as abundant in the Chelmsford district and also in the north and south
of the County. This surprised him as, hitherto, the insect was invariably thought of as
coastal and had only been recorded as such up until this time. Perhaps this observation
made in the 1940's marks the time when Metrioptera roeselii started its spread inland. In
1947 the insect was recorded at Colchester, Manningtree and Benfleet by E.S. Brown.
The beginning of the 1950's heralded few records but two names repeatedly turned up
recording Orthoptera within the County. W.B. Broughton found the first record for Essex
of Tetrix subulata in rank, damp herbage at Rivenhall near Kelvedon on 18th June 1950.
He was able to determine the female specimen taken as T.subulata, as E.S. Brown
(mentioned above) had just published his notes on the Taxonomy. British distribution and
ecology of T.subulata and T. cepero[3]. Broughton went on to record several Orthoptera
within the County at this time including Leptophyes punctatissima and Tetrix undulata at
Grays Chalk Quarry and Meconema thalassinum at Epping Forest.
It was at this time that D.K.McE. Kevan published the first of four articles on the known
distribution of British Orthopteroides (loc. cit.). They spanned a period from 1952 -1961
inclusive and records were mainly referred to on a vice county basis. Apart from the
common species Myrmeleotettix maculatus was recorded in both vice counties as was
Omocestus viridulus, Omocestus rufipes, Platycleis albopuncata, Tetrix subulata and
Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa. Presumably, the records included a great many historical findings.
At this time R.M. Payne was recording Orthoptera in the County as frequently as anyone
before him and in 1957 he published the Distribution of Grasshoppers and Allied Insects
in the London Area in the London Naturalist. He dealt with the historical records as well
as those that were then current, for the London Natural History Society's area (a 20 miles
radius from St Pauls Cathedral).
Few records were published after R.M. Payne's article despite the publication in 1965 of
David R. Ragge's Grasshoppers. Crickets and Cockroaches of the British Isles, which
certainly provided a much needed springboard for many amateur naturalists to become
involved with Orthoptera recording.
There was a significant record on 18th September 1974 when J.H. Flint discovered
Omocestus rufipes in the High Wood area of Blackmore in central Essex. This was
thought to be a new record of this species for the County, but despite many searches by
myself and other naturalists, it has not been refound and the record must now be
considered doubtful.
Much more recently Roger Payne (no relation to R.M. Payne mentioned above) published
The Grasshoppers and Crickets of Essex in the South Essex Naturalist of 1980/81. The
article dealt with descriptions of all known Essex species together with a very user
friendly key and distribution maps for several species showing post 1970 records on a
10KM square basis. Although virtually all of the records were for the south east of the
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