THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB
HEADQUARTERS:
THE PASSMORE EDWARDS MUSEUM,
ROMEORD ROAD, STRATFORD,
LONDON, E15 4LZ
NEWSLETTER NO. 1 July, 1991
Dear Member,
This is the first of our new format newsletter. It is hoped that it will prove to be a useful way to keep
our membership informed of Council decisions, as well as giving reports of meetings, notices of
forthcoming events and short articles of interest to Essex naturalists.
It is hoped that any members who feel so moved will send their contributions, roughly along the
lines indicated, which we will be pleased to publish.
To run alongside this newsletter we intend to continue with the Essex Naturalist series, but future
issues will not necessarily be on single topics, as they have recently. Instead some will be
compilations of papers, reverting back to the tradition of Essex Naturalists of earlier decades.
In making these changes, the Council has taken into consideration printing and postage costs, and
we hopethat this new format will be no less informative whi 1 st making some financial savings. We
would welcome any comments on these changes from the membership.
Del Smith, Editor, 12 Tring gardens, Harold Hill, Romford, Essex, RM3 9EP.
Telephone Ingrebourne 75555.
PUTTING ESSEX SPIDERS ON THE MAP
A small number of dedicated Essex arachnologists are busy helping to record the distribution of
spiders in the county. This is all part of a national survey being undertaken by the British
Arachnological Society in conjunction with the Biological Records Centre at Monks Wood. In 1997
it is hoped to publish an atlas of British spiders which will include a map for each species.
At present 407 species of spider have been recorded in Essex, out of a national total of
approximately 650, and their distribution is being mapped using a computerised database and
mapping program.
Essex contains nationally important populations of rare spiders. The jumping spider Heliophanus
auratus is found nowhere else in Britain except on small areas of shingle in the Blackwater Estuary.
Another jumping spider Euophrys browningi has populations on shingle and shell banks in Suffolk,
Essex and Kent. The species is closely related to the European species E, obsoleta, but these east
coast populations have apparently been isolated for a long time.