Species recording at Abbotts Hall Farm, Great Wigborough
and Sphecodes species being plentiful here. The lungworts (Pulmonaria spp.) attract numerous
flower-bees Anthophora plumipes, which in turn hosts iis brood-parasite bee Melecta albifrons, a
scarce bee in Essex and a very pleasing record for this type of locality.
Several Nationally Scarce species have been recorded. Some of these are. in fact, reasonably well
distributed along the Essex coast, but it is nice to see them in this setting. Species in this category
include Andrena trimmerana (Nb), Lasioglossum malachurum (Nb), L. puncticolle (Nb) and
Nomada fucata (Na). Other species are rather less common. Priocnemis coriacea is a Nationally
Scarce (Na) spider-hunting wasp that is very thinly scattered across southern England and with
only a handful of known sites in Essex. Little is known about its nesting biology, but it is said to
favour "lighter soils, on downland and thinly wooded heathland" (Edwards & Telfer 2002) - rather
at variance with the generally heavy clays found here. Another Nationally Scarce species that has
been recorded is the mining bee Andrena labiata, which is said to favour Speedwell Veronica spp.
flowers but also, as here, the flowers of Greater Stitchwort Stellaria holostea.
Another unusual species attracted to the garden plants is the small bee Chelostoma campanularum,
which, as its name suggests, favours Campanula flowers, such as Harebell C. rotundifolia. The old
garden walls provide nesting habitat for the mason bee Osmia rufa and, later in the summer, the
small metallic green mining bee Lasioglossum smeathmanellum. Interestingly, the Osmia is
parasitised by the wasp Sapyga quinquepunctata (Scolioidea: Sapygidae), recorded here for the
first time in 2002.
The bumblebee fauna is surprisingly good, with the six "common species" (Bombus pratorum, B.
pascuorum, B. hortorum, B. lucorum, B. terrestris and B. lapidarius), whilst researchers on the
arable field margins have also recorded the scarce coastal species B. muscorum and the nationally
scarce Bombus (Psithyrus) rupestris.
The bee Chelostoma campanularum foraging inside a Campanula flower © P.R. Harvey
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 20 (2003)
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