The Name of the Beast
Rod Cole Elizabeth Cottage, Bells Hill Road, Vange, Basildon, Essex SS16 5JT
As some readers are no doubt already aware, Marks Hill Wood on Langdon Hills is
remarkably rich in wildlife. Indeed, new discoveries are made on a fairly regular basis.
However, we cannot always have the wildlife turning up in the most lovable forms:
nature isn't like that.
Those of us who have experienced the woodland in all seasons know full well that it supports
some of the most vicious mosquitoes for miles around, given to making their presence felt
on warm June evenings when the mind ought to be able to concentrate upon the distant
singing of a nightingale. We have yet to give these little creatures any kind of name that
could be published - a Latin one, I mean, rather than something more earthily Anglo-
Saxon - but no doubt steps will be taken to establish formal identity at some point.
However, these mosquitoes are not the main subject of this current article. Rather, I
mean to draw attention towards another of the nature reserve's nasties, the savage little
fly, a hump-backed job, about 4mm. long, which is all too good at sneaking up to
perspiring volunteer workers and rendering a sharp bite.
The surprise is all the more complete on account of the attendant fly's seemingly
innocuous nature. It is only when a round red wound on the surface of the skin is felt that
misdemeanours are realised, for this fly comes equipped with a couple of effective jaws
with which to break the skin surface. Within an hour or so - writing from personal
experience - a raised aureole surrounds the wound, and then the affected part becomes
swollen and tight, and itchy. The effect can last up to a week before the bite gets forgotten
amid the welter of subsequent petty afflictions to the same arm in question (I have
described my most recent experience of one of these bites, on the underside of the arm).
These flies might well have been around for a long time, but it is only in the past few
years that those of us who regularly work in the wood have become aware of them - and
I must stress that they do not exist in dramatic clouds. Folk don't get bitten eveiy week.
Even so, this latest experience was worth following up, and an email exchange with Del
Smith, the Essex Field Club's Diptera expert, made it clear that a name might well be
found for the creature, if only we could collect a specimen or two. Thus we looked out
for these flies on the following work party and, amid the eminently sunny and pleasant
conditions in the new hornbeam coppice section, we succeeded in capturing two of
them, which were duly incarcerated within glass tubes.
These were sent off to Del's current Aberdeenshire address, and within a day or two
there came a reply by email. As anticipated, both insects were female - for it is the
female of so many of these biting insects that is the culprit, the male normally settling
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 58, January 2009 17