Stictopleurus abutilon (Rossi) and S. punctatonervosus (Goeze) (Hemiptera:
Rhopalidae), new records mainly from Essex
PETER HARVEY
32 Lodge Lane, GRAYS, Essex RM16 2YP
The two British Stictopleurus species are rhopalid bugs with a largely transparent and unpunctured
base to the forewings. They are dark brown or yellow-brown with pale spots around the abdomen,
and a broad almost spoon-shaped tip to the scutellum, especially in S. abutilon (Plate 9). In Shirt
(1987) there were no post-1900 records known in Britain for Stictopleurus abutilon or S.
punctatonervosus and they were both listed as Appendix (Believed extinct). They were also
considered Extinct in Kirby (1992) who states that there arc confirmed old records for S. abutilon
from Deal in Kent, Ashstead in Surrey, Bournemouth in Hampshire and Hum in Dorset. There was
no strong evidence that the species was ever established in Britain, although the existence of three
specimens from Bournemouth suggests the possibility that a population was at least temporarily
established. There are confirmed records of S. punctatonervosus for Charlwood in Surrey and
Holm Bush in Sussex, but none later than 1870. It was apparently certainly established at the
Charlwood locality, having been taken there in 1860, 1869 and 1870 (Kirby op. cit.). An Essex
record collected near Chelmsford in June 1950 by J.H. Flint was based on a misidentification for
Rhopalus subrufus (Kirby 1997).
S. punctatonervosus (Plate 10) was rediscovered in Britain by Jerry Bowdrey in 1997 when he
collected a specimen whilst vacuum sampling dry, sparsely vegetated ground for invertebrates at
The Moors, Colchester (TM0124) on 17lh July 1997. On 23rd Septemberl997 a second example
was taken at West Bergholt Heath (TL9527) from bare, sandy ground (Bowdrey 1999). A third
Stictopleurus taken at West Mersea (TM0012) on 30lh July 1998 in Bowdrey (op. cit.) he has now
redetermined as S. abutilon (pers.comm.). All these sites are in N. Essex.
Jones (2000) swept two specimens of S. punctatonervosus from the flowery area of rough grassland
on the embankment of the Thames next to Chelsea Power Station on 8lh August 2000. He realised
that he had earlier taken two specimens from Woodlands Farm, Bexley, swept in a derelict farm
building site on 7th July and 20th August 1998, and one specimen taken with S. abutilon at West
Acton on 5lh October 1999, swept on a rough grassy embankment.
Kirby (1997) records S. abutilon new to Essex on the basis of one collected at the Essex Filter Beds
(TQ361867) by D.J.P. Miller at MV light on 14th August 1996. He notes that the species has recently
been recorded from several locations in the south of England, and appears to have established
breeding populations in the relatively mild climate of recent years.
I first collected both species in 2000, S. punctatonervosus from tall open flower-rich herbaceous
vegetation at the side of railway sidings in Haringey, Middlesex between 30* June and 12th July and
S. abutilon from Broom Hill near West Tilbury in S. Essex on 1 lIh August, probably swept in similar
habitat. Subsequently both species have turned up many more times, especially S. punctatonervosus
(see list of records below), from several vice counties including East and West Kent, Middlesex,
West Suffolk, as well as North and South Essex.
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 21 (2004)
57