7
The English Nature publication "A Review of the threatened bees, wasps and ants of
Great Britain" (S. Falk, 1991) states that the species is apparently increasing in
frequency and largely associated with unthreatened, often artificial habitat types.
Nesting usually occurs in sand or gravel slopes or vertical banks fully exposed to the sun.
It has even been discovered nesting in a rockery at a railway station. The wasp has been
taken on a number of occasions in gaidens, as in two instances reported here. The species
is very similar to the common Crossocerus elongatulus, but the absence of records in
Britain before the 1970s is thought to suggest that the wasp may be a recent colonist.
Peter Harvey
SOME UNUSUAL FISH REPORTED
The Southend Area News reports the appearance of shoals of Norwegian Haddock off
Southend. The Southend Sea Centre has received two of the fish for its displays. Both
measure about five inches long and have striking rosy backs and fins.
A Ministry of Fisheries official Peter Walker said that the species had not been seen off
the Southend coast since 1975. He was not sure why they had come back now, but the
feeling is cleaner seas have encouraged them to return.
The Echo Angling reports another surprise fish, a common or short sun-fish Mola mola.
The capture of the sun-fish, which took twenty minutes to bring to the boat, was made in
the vivinity of Man Made Island by John Clarke, skipper of the Canvey based Sharon
Lee. It is possibly the first of its species ever taken in the Thames on rod and line and
thought to be the first from the Thames in living memory. Apparently only two
references can be found of sun-fish in the Thames, in 1872 a specimen of 5 feet 2 inches
in length and four foot 3 inches in depth and weighing 1961b was caught in a shrimp net
off Southend and a second fifty pound plus fish was taken by shrimpers off Canvey Island
in September 1897.
The species is relatively common off the Irish coast, where it was once harpooned for the
oil in its liver. It habitually basks on the surface with its shark-like fin sticking out of the
water, and this made it an easy target. The fish grows to a great size, and may be seven
foot or so long and weighing many hundreds of pounds.
'MEDITERRANEAN' CLIMATE?
The Financial Times on the 29th September carried an article about a Department of the
Environment report which explores the effects on plants and animals that Britain could
expect if global warming occurs. Poisonous purple spiders with "an unpleasant bite"are
supposed to have spread along the south and east coasts of England during recent
abnormally warm weather and are now common in Portsmouth and Worthing and have
been spotted in Essex. The spider in question is Steatoda nobilis, a spider in the family
Theridiidae, related to the Black widow spider. However probably almost all houses and
outhouses contain Steatoda bipunctata a species which has certainly been present in
Britain for a long time.
Steatoda nobilis is fairly large and has been known to bite. The bite is apparently fairly
potent by British standards but the spider is most unlikely to be in a situation where
people would normally come into contact with it. It makes a complex scaffold