Recent Records of Hoverflies from Essex 85
Cheilosia barbata Loew Notable (Scarce)
Female taken in Mill Wood Pit, Thurrock, TQ5978, 12.viii.1994 (P.R. Harvey).
Cheilosia cynocephala Loew Notable (Scarce)
Taken at Strethall, TL4941, on Musk Thistle Cardials nutans by C. Watson in 1994/95 and checked
by C.W. Plant. The larvae of this species are known to feed inside the stems of Musk Thistle.
Cheilosia velutina Loew Notable (Scarce)
Recent records of this species are from the pulverised fuel ash lagoons at West Thurrock, TQ5876,
on 28.viii. 1996 and 11.viii (P.R. Harvey), Lexden, Colchester, TL9825, on 17.vi.1995 (J. Bowden)
and Canvey Island, TQ7683, 1999 (P.R. Harvey).
Criorhina asilica (Fallen) Notable (Scarce)
P.R. Harvey took a male in Alphamstone Pits, TL8735, on 25.V.1996, and a male and two females in
Mill Wood, at Thorndon Park South TQ6289 on 4.V.1993. This woodland hoverfly is associated
with dead and decaying timber into which the larvae burrow.
Epistrophe diaphana (Zetterstedt) Notable (Scarce)
A species which is normally associated with scrub or woodland and is often taken from Umbellifers,
especially Hogweed. Specimens were taken by C.W. Plant at Ingrebourne Marsh, TQ5383 and
TQ5384, on 13.vi.1997 and 16.vi. 1997.
Ferdinandea ruficornis (Fabricius) Notable (Scarce)
This species has been recorded only twice before in Essex. Harwood took a specimen near Colchester
probably around the turn of the 19th Century and C.O. Hammond captured another in Epping Forest
in 1946. A female turned up in a malaise trap in the garden of D.A. Smith, TQ5492, between
1-2.v.1997. The trap was next to a plum tree with a small sap run. The larvae are thought to be
associated with sap runs, and most adults have been caught in malaise traps, sometimes in gardens.
Meligramma trianguliferum (Zetterstedt) Notable (Scarce)
A female was taken from Galleywood Common, near Chelmsford, TL7002, by P.R. Harvey on
14.V.1995.
Neoascia interrupta (Meigen) Notable (Scarce)
This species was added to the British list only in 1981, and most records have emanated from the
south-east. Recent records are from a shallow pond dominated by Typha and Juncus at Dunton near
Basildon, TQ6789, where several males and females were taken by R.G. Payne on 6.vi.l995, from
ponds at Star Lane Brickworks, Great Wakering, TQ9387, by P.R. Harvey on 20.v. 1998 and later at
the same site by R.G. Payne on 3.vi. 1998.
Heringia (=Neocnemodon) pubescens (Delucchi & Pschorn-Walcher) Notable (Scarce)
Unrecorded in Essex before 1994, when C.W. .Plant recorded a male in the City of London Cemetery,
Manor Par. Another male was taken by P.R. Harvey in Warren Pit near Woodham Walter, TL8006,
on3.viii. 1996.
Triglyphus primus Loew Notable (Scarce)
The larvae of this small, dark species live inside galls on Mugwort Artemisia vulgaris and the adults
are taken most frequently on Umbellifers. C Watson found this species at Sawbridgeworth Marsh,
TL4916, in August 1997.
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 17 (2000)