STATUS, DISTRIBUTION
and IDENTIFICATION
Notes on Essex specialities. 1: the Essex Lacewing
Nineta inpunctata Reuter, 1894 (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae)
COLIN W. PLANT
14 West Road, Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire CM23 3QP
The Essex Lacewing Nineta inpunctata is a relatively large green lacewing and is known in
Britain from a single insect captured in Eastend Wood, Elsenham. The single female specimen
was taken by the author at a mercury-vapour moth-trap set in the wood on 26 June 1989 (Plant,
1996) and rested in the author's collection wrongly identified as an immaculate form of
Chrysopa pallens (Rambur). There it remained until six years later when, in 1985, a critical
examination was made of all the lacewings as part of the preparation for producing a new
A1DGAP key to adults (Plant, 1997). Having re-identified it as N. inpunctata using the German
language keys of Aspock et al. (1980) - and realising that translating German was not one a
strong point - attempts to verify the author's opinion by reference to other specimens soon
revealed that this species was not represented in any British collection - museum or private. A
letter to Professor H. Aspock in Vienna informing him of the discovery prompted the almost
immediate response that he had discussed he matter with Herbert Holzel and that they were both
" ... of the opinion that the discovery of Nineta inpunctata is Britain is so surprising that the
specimen should be compared carefully". A request that Dr Holzel be afforded an opportunity to
examine the specimen followed and was duly complied with; consequently the identification
was expertly verified. If nothing else this provides a classic example of the importance of
keeping a voucher specimen!
The species is not known outside the West Palaearctic Region. Aspock et al. (op. cit.) presented
the last published distribution map in which it was recorded from only eleven localities in
central Europe, involving Austria, Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary and Italy, together with
four localities further north in Poland (one locality), Finland (one locality) and Sweden (two
localities). Since then it has been reported from a single locality in Slovenija (Devetak, 1984),
from two in southern Norway (Greve, 1985) and more recently from the Rhine Valley in
Germany (Schmitz, 1993), a single locality in Switzerland (Duelli, 1994) and one in France
(Canard et al., 1998).
The early stages of this lacewing are, unfortunately, completely unknown and the scanty
European records arc all from light traps which docs little to shed light on its ecology. Other
British green lacewings are all predators, principally of aphids, though adults also drink nectar
from flowers. It is known as an adult insect from altitudes between 110 and 1400 metres and is
likely to be arboreal in habit, though bushes rather than mature trees may be utilised and oak
features prominently at most European sites.
Numerically as well as geographically this appears to be a rare insect. No more than twelve
individual insects appear to have been encountered in central Europe between 1980 and 1996
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 16 (1999)