Some interesting aculeate Hymenoptera records for 1999-2000
female between 25 August and 6 September 1998 and two females between 14 and 27 June 1999,
together with two males in a flower-rich ruderal verge by Coldharbour Lane adjacent to Rainham
Marshes at TQ5180. Mike Edwards also collected the species along the old rifle butts at Wennington
Marshes (TQ5479) on 12 August 2000. The Nationally Scarce (Notable B) Sphecodes miniatus is
very rare in the county. It is a cleptoparasite of mining bees in the genus Lasioglossum and in Britain
and Germany it is reported to be associated with L. nitidiusculum (Falk 1991), a rare species in
Essex. Adrian Knowles collected a single male at Old Heath Cliff Paddock (TM0123) on 17 July
2000 and Mike Edwards recorded the species along the old rifle butts at Wennington Marshes
(TQ5479) on 12 August 2000. Sphecodes niger is a Nationally Rare (RDB3) cleptoparasite of small
Lasioglossum species, and it has been taken around nesting aggregations of the common L. morio
(Falk 1991). The author has collected six females at Temple Mills (TQ3686 and TQ3786) between
13 July and 16 September 1999, one female near Arena Essex (TQ5879) between 27 August and 27
September 1999 and another female at South Ockendon (TQ6081) on 13 August 1999.
Adrian Knowles collected one female of the Nationally Scarce (Notable A) Sphecodes reticulatus at
Middlewick Ranges (TM0022) on 16 August 1999. Adrian also collected the species at Old Heath
Cliff Paddock (TM0123) on several occasions in 1999 and 2000, a female on 17 September 1999
and again on 17 July and 7 August 2000, and one male on 15 August 2000. The author collected two
males and one female at the same site on 23 August 2000, as well as two locations in S. Essex, one
female at Northwick, Canvey (TQ7683) on 26 July 2000 and two males at Wennington Marshes on
22 August 2000, one by the old butts (TQ5479), where it had also been recorded by Mike Edwards
on 12 and 20 August 2000, and one near the silt lagoons (TQ5279). The host remains unconfirmed.
On southern heathlands it has been taken around the burrows of Lasioglossum prasinum and an
association with another heathland species Andrena argentata has also been suggested (Falk 1991),
but these are both species which do not occur in Essex. Other suggested hosts are Andrena dorsata,
a widespread bee and A. barbilabris, scarce in Essex. Adrian Knowles collected one female of the
Nationally Scarce (Notable A) Sphecodes rubicundus, a cleptoparasite of the mining bee Andrena
labialis, at Fingringhoe Wick (TM0419) on 31 May 2000 and the author collected a female at
Northwick Canvey (TQ7683) between 23 June and 7 July 2000.
Mining bees (Subfamily Melittinae)
The most exciting discovery has been the capture by Dan Hackett of two males and one female of
the Nationally Scarce (Notable A) Macropis europaea (see Plate X) at Walthamstow Marshes
(TQ3587) on 25 July 2000. This is reported in more detail elsewhere in the journal (Harvey &
Hackett 2001). Another important event was the rediscovery by the author of Melitta haemorrhoidalis
in Essex at Belhus Park (TQ5781), flying around Harebell Campanula rotundifolia flowers in open
unmanaged flower-rich grassland near Long Pond on 15 July 1999 (Harvey 1999b). The species has
a close association with Campanula flowers, usually Harebell or Nettle-leaved Bellflower C.
trachelium but also other species. The area in question was burnt shortly afterwards, almost certainly
the result of vandalism, and it remains to be seen whether the bee has survived. The Nationally
Scarce (Notable B) Melitta tricincta obtains its pollen and nectar almost exclusively from Red
Bartsia Odontites verna. The bee has proved to be numerous in a number of locations in South
Essex in places where this plant grows in quantity. It has been collected at one new location at
meadows in Cranham (TQ5788) subject to plans for woodland planting, by Phil Butler on 25 July
1999, the author on 6 August 1999, when it males and females were numerous, and by Adrian
Knowles on 13 August 1999.
The Nationally Scarce (Notable B) Dasypoda altercator is an impressive bee, the female with an
enormous brush of hairs on the hind tibia for collecting pollen. It nests in friable sandy ground,
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 18 (2001)
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