Essex Field Club Exhibition
site near Lakeside and of the parasitic flies Clytiomya continua (the second and third British records
from a site in the Lee Valley) and its shieldbug host Euydema oleracea, Cistogaster globosa new to
Essex from the same Lee Valley site, Catharosia pygmaea from Canvey, with only a handful of British
records, and the large attractive Phasia hemiptera rare in Essex. Charts were displayed showing the
number of Essex spider records since 1986 and the number of spider species recorded for the county
since 1900. There were pictures of the jumping spider Sitticus saltator, discovered at its third Essex site
in 2003 at West Thurrock, and the RDB2 pirate spider Ero aphana new to Essex from a site near
Lakeside. Photographs taken by Fred Stevens were shown of the large spider Segestria florentina,
discovered in Tiptree by his niece. Pictures were also shown of the sphecid wasp Crossocerus palmipes,
new to Essex from West Thurrock, the Musk Beetle Aromia moschata from the Lee Valley, and the
rhopalid bugs Stictopleurus abutilon and S. punctatonervosus, both considered extinct in Britain until a
few years ago, but now widespread in Essex and the south-east. Jerry Bowdrey displayed three species
of earwig native to Essex These were a pair of Lesser Earwigs Labia minor from a compost bin at
Thorpe-le-Soken, a pair of the notable species Lesne's Earwig Forficula lesnei from Wivenhoe Woods
and a pair of Common Earwigs Forficula auricularea from Bradwell as well as an example of a male
with over-large forceps (macrolabic form) from Colne Point. Ray Cranfield and David Scott set up
a display showing a Common Lizard Lacerta vivipara habitat recently found in Bishops Stortford.
Photographs included shots of the old meadow habitat and close up views of male and female lizards
for scxing purposes. Germaine Greer visited the stand and asked questions regarding her own pond and
how best to encourage frogs and toads.
Aselection of photographs of Essex erratic boulders, basalts from Saffron Walden, and Finchingfield,
Hertfordshire Puddingstones from Ugley Green and White Notley, Septarian nodules from Roxwell
and sarsens from Thurrock, illustrated Gerald Lucy's article in this year's Essex Naturalist. To
complement this, Graham Ward displayed a selection of rocks to further illustrate the article and to
highlight the variety of erratic rock types to be found in the county. Several of the specimens were from
important collections within the Field Club's archive of geological material. Mark Hanson provided
a poster display of interesting historical material from the Grays area, including Field Club photographs
of a field meeting to Grays in 1881, a lime kiln and mammilated sarsens in Purfleet Chalk Quarry,
wood cuts showing the method of quarry ing and of wagons used in the 18th century in the quarry (from
Arthur Young's 'General View of the Agriculture of the County of Essex' -1807), an estate map of the
chalk quarry (1767) and a plan and an illustration of the deneholes at Hangman's Wood.
Martin Wakelin, Emma Simmonds and Peter Douch from Essex County Council brought some
information and notes from the recent Essex Biodiversity Partnership conference on the subject
of creating a centrally co-ordinated resource of biological records for Essex. They engaged people's
views, ideas and interest in the subject and encouraged them to respond by sending in their thoughts
on the issues involved.
In a departure from the usual type of display, Rodney Cole had a selection of literature from, and a
montage of photographs taken in, some of Russia's 'zapovedniks' -special nature reserves. These
reserves date, in many cases, from the Soviet period, some of the really great ones from the 1930s.
Each has, or had, a permanent staff of scientists in addition to rangers. The reserves were on the
steppes of southern Russia (Kursk region) and the southern Urals (Bashkortostan). These
world-class reserves are under threat and various international measures are being devised to assist
them. Another unusual exhibit was of the products of coppicing by Dave Wilkins and Simon
Stock, volunteers at Belhus Woods Country Park. The exhibits included stickmaking, using wood
from coppicing in Thames Chase area, spoon carving (in the style of traditional Welsh love spoons)
using wood from the Country Park, wooden mushrooms turned on a pole lathe and whistles and key
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 21 (2004)
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