THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB
HEADQUARTERS:
THE PASSMORE ED WARDS MUSE UM,
ROMFORD ROAD, STRATFORD,
LONDON, E15 4LZ
NEWSLETTER NO. 14 August 1995
LACEWINGS AND ALLIES IN ESSEX
Even non-entomologists must recognise a green lacewing when they see one. Though
there are 76 British species (including four snake flies, three alder flies and four scorpion
flies) we have only one which hibernates and this is the one which is frequently found
lying dead on window ledges and in garden sheds during the spring.
Exactly ten years ago, back in 1985, when the Passmore Edwards Museum still had a
Natural History Department, I produced a set of distribution maps for lacewings and
allies in the county. These showed some 34 recorded in recent years together with a
further four that had been recorded donkey's years ago but had not been seen since.
At that time, the study of lacewings had, for some reason, been largely ignored by British
entomologists, though our European counterparts, especially the Austrians and
Hungarians, were approaching these familiar insects in a rather more thorough manner.
However, things have moved on apace in the intervening decade. The Essex list now
stands at a rather more impressive 46 species reported since 1979, with a further 4 not
recorded since the turn of the century. North Essex and South Essex vice counties
compare well, with 39 and 41 species since 1979, respectively. I am sure there are half a
dozen or so more to be discovered yet!
Over the same period, no less than 8 new species have been added to the formal list for
the British Isles. For the budding entomologists amongst you, these are: Coniopteryx
esbenpeterseni, Coniopteryx lentiae, Semidalis pseudouncinata, Hemerobius fenestratus,
Chrysoperla lucasina, Chrysoperla species B, Cunctochrysa bellifontensis and Nineta
inpunctata.
Of these eight, no less than live - C esbenpeterseni, S. pseudouncinata, Cu. species B, C.
bellifontensis and N. inpunctata are recorded for Essex. Indeed, the last named species
was first found in the county, at Eastend Wood, near Stansted Airport during 1989. It
looks confusingly like the rare unspotted form of Chrysopa pallens (= septempunctata)
and I had labelled it as this in my collection. It was not until earlier this year, whilst
examining some material rather more critically as a part of my research for the new
AIDGAP keys to lacewings (due for publication early in 1996), that I realised it was
something different. I eventually tracked it down in a German key. Confirmation proved
rather more difficult, especially since the specimen was a female and so the characteristic
shape of the male genitalia could not be examined. There are apparently only 15 sites
(including Eastend Wood) in the entire Western Palaearctic where this species has ever
been recorded and it seems that there are no examples in any museum or private
collection anywhere in Britain. Confirmation was finally gained through the kindness of
Herbert Holzel in Austria - though the specimen lost a wing in transit!
The two Chrysoperla species are of far greater interest however, and are the main reason