Review of the Lepidoptera of Essex for 1999
87
Recording meetings were held throughout the season and had mixed success. At Dovercourt Dunes
our progress was interrupted by the bomb disposal squad after a Mills grenade had been discovered
on the beach. Our quest here was the Bright Wave Idaea ochrata cantiata, but no evidence of it was
found and the species appears to be extinct in Essex. We welcomed back the Small Ranunculus
Aetheria dysodea, absent from the county since 1918, larvae of which were found at East Tilbury in
July on Prickly Lettuce Lactuca serriola.
We were much saddened by the loss of Geoff Pyman, one of the true giants of recording in the
eounty. Geoff had hosted a meeting of the Essex Lepidoptera Panel a few days before his death and
was looking forward to the new season in his usual robust way.
Recording network
We enjoy a wide, if rather uneven, coverage at present, which is somewhat biased towards the
gardens of the individual recorders. Fortunately, Paul Harris has embarked on a freelance quest to
try and partly resolve this, and the north/south divide problem, by visiting many venues of more
entomological merit. Many Essex sites have yielded over 300 species, and fourteen have past the
four hundred mark, as the table below shows:
Site Habitat Type Recorder First Species
record
Saffron Walden Garden A.M.Emmet 1960 995
Friday Wood SSSI Mixed woodland, scrub Various 1973 809
Jaywick Garden, coastal J. Young 1988 800
Fingringhoe Wick NR Mixed scrub, coastal Various 1986 740
Dovercourt Garden, coastal C.Gibson 1991 715
Kirby-le-Soken Garden P. Bergdahl 1993 601
Daws Hall NR Mixed, ornamental I.Grahame 1983 560
Theydon Bois Garden JG. Green 1985 500
Beaumont-cum-Moze Garden, coastal J.B.Fisher 1969 469
Colchester Garden B.Goodey 1984 467
Mistley Garden l.C. Rose 1994 441
Frinton-on-Sea Garden, coastal B. Lock 1993 426
Old Hall Marsh NR Saltmarsh, grazing Varions 1985 418
South-west Essex
Jean Green has amassed a list of 500 species from her Theydon Bois garden, including many
microlepidoptera which are regularly sent to me for analyses. Bryon Pateman's North Chingford
list, contains relatively few micros but still numbers 351 species. Both observers provide such a
wealth of data that their sites are amongst the best known of any in the country and they are to be
congratulated for their efforts. Sites over 200 species'. Ingatestone, garden 363; North Chingford,
garden 351; East Ham NR 345; Dolphin Quarry, Purfleet 328; East Ham, garden 310; Harlow,
garden 245; Mashbury, garden 245; Writtle, garden 219; Chelmsford, garden 200.
South-east Essex
Don Down has provided 550 records from the Thundersley area, but works almost in isolation. The
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 17 (2000)