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I have however started to gather data from other sources. Adrian Chalkley, freshwater recorder
for Suffolk, has some Essex information and has been most helpful with advice. The
Environment Agency have provided lots of records, and I hope also to obtain records gathered
for student projects at the University of Essex. Hence, my time as recorder is likely to be spent
mainly in compiling data from these oilier sources; I do hope however to become more proactive
in the future.
I would greatly appreciate any ideas and sources of existing records. In all probability, little
work will have been done outside the popular groups like Odonata, but surely somebody,
somewhere has records of freshwater snails, beetles and bugs if not caddis-flies and leeches?
Some new and interesting galls in Essex
JERRY BOWDREY
Fairview, Colchester Road, Thorpe-le-Soken, Essex COl6 OLD
A small core of recorders continues to add new species to the Essex list and to update the county-
records. Some of the more interesting discoveries since my last Report (Essex Naturalist 13) arc
outlined below.
The Cynipidae on oak are probably the best recorded of the gall-inducers in the county, but new
discoveries continue to be made. It is hoped that the paper on the non-oak cynipids elsewhere in
this issue will stimulate more recording of those species.
Ray Ruffell continues to make a valuable contribution including Diplolepis rosae and Andricus
fecundator new to TL61 (both 1998); A. lignicola new to TMOO, A. quercuscorticis new to
TL69 and A. testaceipes new to TL91 and TL60 (all 1997). In 1998 Diplolepis spinosissima
was recorded from Foulness (TR09), the first confirmed Essex record since the 1940s (JPB).
New records were also made amongst the gall-inducing Diptera. The gall midge Loewiola
centaureae recorded in 1998 from a single gall on a leaf midrib of black knapweed Centaurea
nigra in an acid grassland site at Great Bentley is probably new to Essex (JPB). Craneiobia
coeni produces distinctive galls on dogwood Cornus sanguinea. It was previously known in
Essex from only one site. Grays Chalk Pit, where it was discovered by Roger Payne. In August
1998 galls were also found at Wat Tyler Country Park, near Pitsea (JPB). This is an unusual
record in that the dogwood was not grow ing on the chalk as is usually the case when this gall is
found in southern Britain, although there does appear to be a chalk influence in the flora of some
parts of the park.
The status of mite-induced galls is less well known, but the discovery of Aceria cladopthira
galling w oody nightshade Solanum dulcamara at Old Hall Marsh by Jerry Heath appears to be
only the second modern county record. At both sites the host plant was growing in very damp
conditions.
Lastly, a record that missed the last report was of a new fungus gall for the county, discovered
by Tony Boniface and Tim Pyner at Rowney Wood in 1996. Taphrina johansonii galls the fruits
of aspen Populus tremula, and the only other British records come from Scotland and Suffolk.
My thanks to all those who have contributed records, with special mention to Martin Heywood
and Ken Hill for their extensive lists.
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 16 (1999)