Some interesting aculeate Hymenoptera records for 1999-2000
especially inland (Falk 1991). It is rare in Essex, where all records have come from high quality
flower-rich grassland sites. It was therefore very interesting to receive a female collected by Graham
Smith in Fryerning Churchyard (TL6300) on 4 June 2000, suggesting this churchyard may contain
important surviving grassland invertebrate habitat. The importance of churchyard grassland for wax-
caps and other fungi has already been noted by Boniface (2000; 2001). Adrian Knowles collected
one female at Brinkley fields (TM0028) on 25 May 2000. Falk (1991) describes the Nationally
Scarce (Notable A) Andrena labiata as a species generally very scarce in its former strongholds that
has declined significantly and apparently disappeared from many former parts of its range. There is
now evidence that it is on the increase, and it is certainly turning up more frequently in Essex.
Adrian Knowles collected a male at the Tilbury EWT Centre (TQ6576) on 26 April 1999 and a
female at Fingringhoe Wick (TM0419) on 31 May 2000. If a good population of the bee is encountered
it would be prudent to look for its cleptoparasite Nomada guttulata, last certainly recorded in Essex
at Gosfield in 1903 (Beaumont 1903).
The Nationally Scarce (Notable A) Andrena minutuloides is a rare species typically, but not
exclusively, associated with calcareous grasslands. It was first collected in Essex by the author in
August 1993 from Mill Wood Pit (TQ5978), where it proved to be fairly frequent, and as a single
female at Grays Chalk Quarry (TQ6178). These specimens were not identified until later when
more material had been collected at sites in Kent and Surrey, clarifying to the author the distinction
between this species and the closely related A. minutula, and it was not reported in the provisional
list for the county (Harvey & Plant 1996). Single females were collected from the doomed Ferry
Fields site (TQ6475) on 13 August 1994 and West Thurrock PFA lagoons (TQ5876) on 11 August
1996, and in 1995 and 1996 it was collected in numbers at Dolphin Pit, a quarry also subject to
development. It was therefore comforting to collect a female from Anchor Field (TQ5876) during a
brief visit on 25 July 2000, an indication that the species currently survives despite the loss of much
suitable habitat. The Nationally Scarce (Notable B) Andrena trimmerana is a much-declined species
in inland Britain, but is still reasonably frequent and widespread near the coast in Essex. It has been
collected at a large number of new sites in N. Essex by Adrian Knowles and the current distribution
is given in fig. 4.
Fig. 4. Distribution in Essex of Andrena trimmerana
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 18 (2001)
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