Field work continues to identify the East Thames Corridor as an exceptional area for
aculeates, with records for over 94% of the modern county fauna, the presence of
populations of many RDB and nationally scarce species and sites showing a remarkably
high level of biodiversity. The two grid squares TQ57 and TQ67 (with a total area of less
than a single 10Km square) contain over 86% of the county fauna and 48% of the british
aculeate fauna.
Coincidence map showing
number of species recorded
in each 10km square
Map produced
using DMAP
a mapping
program
developed by
Dr Alan Morton
As a result of my own survey work in 1994, English Nature acknowledged the national
importance of the fauna of Mill Wood Pit in Thurrock and subsequent survey by Penny
Anderson Associates resulted in a report which eventually surfaced in the public domain
as part of a revised planning application. This report acknowledged the national
importance of the fauna which has an Invertebrate Index higher than that of Salisbury
Plain, a vastly larger area which has been much better worked over many years for many
more invertebrate groups. However Mill Wood Pit will soon be completely lost except for
the very small wood itself and tiny areas nearby. Many of the other most important sites
are identified for development or will lost in the near future. None of the these sites in
the south Essex area have any statutory protection although several have been identified
as SINC sites. Planning permission for extensive development was granted without
intervention by English Nature at an important site at Ferry Fields Tilbury despite the
presence of populations of Bombus sylvarum and Asilus crabroniformis, two species in
the government's top 100 priority list of taxa with Biodiversity Species Action Plans, and
an invertebrate fauna comparable to that of SSSIs in the east Thames region.
Charles Watson has been making extensive inroads into coverage of the north-west of the
county and has discovered the ruby-tailed wasp Omalus puncticollis new for Essex at
Chrishill and Roger Payne has recently identified the spider hunting wasp Anoplius
concinnus new to Essex collected in 1987 at Hanningfield Reservoir. Recent collecting
by Jerry Bowdrey and Adrian Knowles in the Colchester area, so rich for aculeates in the
Harwoods' day at the end of the last century, suggests that this region of Essex may still
contain a diverse and important fauna today. The remnants of heathland and old sand and
gravel pits and the remaining grazing marshes around Colchester and St. Osyth are all
potentially important aculeate sites and Colin Plant and myself have found the area south
of Sudbury to contain several excellent aculeate sites. All these areas in north-east Essex
and others should be more thoroughly investigated and it is hoped that entomologists in
Essex will be stimulated by these maps to increase their recording efforts.
If you would like a copy of the Essex Aculeate Hymenoptera distribution maps, please
send a large A4 SAE together with £2 to cover costs of p & p, printing and binding to
Peter Harvey at 32 Lodge Lane, Grays, Essex RM16 2YP.
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 25, May 1998