12
Some more records for the Backwarden and Danbury Common
I was unable to attend the Field Club meetings but visits to the Backwarden Reserve on
12th August 1993 and 20th August 1994 enabled me to record a number of hymenoptera
(bees and wasps) and several species of fly. Of particular interest were two bees
Andrena fuscipes and Colletes succinctus. Both species have a close association with
heathland since the females gather pollen from heather. I recorded the Andrena herein
1993, but could not find C. succinctus (it was a rather windy day), so it was particularly
nice to find both species this year.
The two bees are inevitably rare in the county, but I have also recorded A. fuscipes from
Tipttee Heath, Thundersley Great Common and the remnant heather area at Thorndon
Park (outside the Country Park) and C. succinctus from Tiptree Heath and Thundersley
Great Common. Surprisingly several visits to Sunshine Plain in Epping Forest have
failed to turn up either species.
The heather at the Backwarden is also home to some important Essex populations of
heathland spiders such as Mangora acalypha, a very common species in parts of southern
England but with only 3 known sites in Essex; the Backwarden, Tiptree Heath and Thrift
Wood between Woodham Walter and Woodham Mortimer. I have failed to find this
species in Epping Forest.
Records for the Backwarden Reserve
Hymenoptera (Bees and wasps)
Ants
Myrmica rubra
Myrmica ruginodis
Myrmica scabrinodis
Lasius niger
Sphecid wasps
Symmorphus bifasciatus
Ectemnius continuus
Bees
Colletes succinctus
Andrena fuscipes
Lasioglossum calceatum
Lasioglossum laevigatus
Lasioglossum leucozonium
Lasioglossum malachurus
Lasioglossum morio
Halictus tumulorum
Sphecodes ephippius
Megachile willughbiella
Bombus lucorum
Bombus lapidarius
Bombus pascuorum
Diptera (Flies)
Conops flavipes
Conops quadrifasciatus
Eumenes tuberculatus
Orthoptera (Grasshoppers and crickets)
Chorthippus brunneus
Chorthippus parallelus
Leptophyes punctatissima
Meconema thalassinum
Arachnida (Spiders)
Dictyna arundinacea
Dictyna latens
Clubiona terrestris
Misumena vatia
Xysticus cristatus
Philodromus cespitum
Evarcha falcata
Pardosa amentata
Pardosa lugubris
Pardosa nigriceps
Pardosa pullata
Alopecosa pulverulenta
Trochosa terricola
Pirata latitans
Pirata piraticus
Theridion simile
Theridion sisyphium
Theridion varians
Enoplognatha ovata
Araneus quadratus
Mangora acalypha
Hylyphantes graminicola
Pocadicnemis juncea
Oedothorax retusus
Erigone atra
Bathyphantes gracilis
Lepthyphantes ericaeus
Lepthyphantes flavipes
Lepthyphantes tenuis
Linyphia triangularis