Amphibian and reptile notes for 2000
a section of the River Ter, producing two areas of water some 33 acres (13 hectares) in extent.
Various small ponds locally have supported Common Toad groups of typically thirty to forty breeding
pairs, some of which have colonised the reservoir and formed a substantial population. In April
2000 I counted approximately two hundred breeding pairs, spawning at the edge of the reservoir,
which has now matured into a habitat which clearly suits the toads. The surrounding, largely arabic,
area contains a busy road which the animals cross to reach the water, and inevitably some fatalities
result.
Some interesting spider records for 1999-2000
PETER HARVEY
32 Lodge Lane, Grays, Essex RM16 2YP
There arc now over 44,500 spider records for the county, mostly for the period 1986 to the present.
The discovery of Zodarion rubidum, new to Britain and Essex, by Paul Mabbott at Temple Mills
has already been described in Harvey (1999a). There is one new county record reported here, together
with records of particular interest for the period 1999 and 2000. I am very grateful to the other
members of the Essex Spider group, David Carr, Ken Hill and Ray Ruffell, for continuing to record
spiders in Essex and whose support at field meetings in pursuit of spiders in Essex and elsewhere is
invaluable. Hopefully, the publication by the Biological Records Centre of the national provisional
atlas later this year will make Essex the envy of arachnologists everywhere! I am also grateful to
Jonty Denton for providing the results of a survey at one site in the southwest of the county and to
Paul Bergdahl, Phil Butler, Alf Gudgeon, Dan Hackett, Adrian Knowles, Roger Payne, Colin Plant,
Graham Smith, Charles Watson as well as Mrs R. Akehurst and other members of the public for
providing specimens.
On 4 June 1997 Andrew Middleton photographed a Tetragnatha species that he had provisionally
identified as T. striata at Wake Valley Pond, Epping Forest (TQ4298), a photograph he then sent to
me for confirmation. However Tetragnatha are not a genus in which species can be determined in
this way Indeed even with adults under the microscope the identification of some species may not
be easy! Andrew subsequently collected one male on the 4 June 1998, and Colin Plant passed this on
to me for identification. It was immediately clear that the spider was indeed T. striata, a new county
record and a Nationally Scarce (Notable B) species. Andrew had also seen males and females on 15
and 17 June, three males on 19 June, three females on 23 June and one female on 24 June 1998.
The important discovery of the Nationally Scarce (Na) jumping spider Synageles venator at Barking
PFA lagoons in 1998 was reported in (Harvey 1998a; 1998b). As stated then, this remarkable area of
dune-like PFA (see fig. 1) and marshy areas oi Phragmites and sedge was soon to be destroyed for
housing development. This destruction has now taken place, and all that remains is a small area
where these habitats are not represented, forming the London Wildlife Trust Ripple Nature Reserve
soon to be enclosed by housing. Inevitably the spider, and the rare ruby-tailed wasp Cleptes nitidulus
mentioned in the recorder report for aculeate Hymenoptera, both known in the county only from this
site, must now be extinct only a year or so after their discovery.
The mouse spider Scotophaeus scutulatus is known in Britain only from Colchester, where Ray
Ruffell first discovered it at his home in 1989. After finding a second specimen, Ray then moved
home some five kilometres, and has now found yet another specimen, a male, on 11 September
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 18 (2001)
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