Invertebrate survey at Gunpowder Park, the former Royal Ordnance Site in the Lee Valley
wide range of trees, shrubs and herbs, maintain the natural hydrology of wet sites and maintain a
mosaic of vegetation types on heaths and grassland, to ensure a rich and varied flora.
HEMIPTERA - bugs and hoppers
Cicadellidae Euscelis ohausi Notable/Nb, Essex Red Data species
The species was found in Area C. This light brown leafhopper with streaks of dark dots on the
wings is very local, but with very widely scattered records from a number of English counties,
Wales, and Scotland. It is supposedly associated with Broom.
Coreidae Bathysolen nubilus Notable/Nb, Essex Red Data species
The species was found in Arca B2. It has a rather restricted distribution in the south-east of England.
It has been recorded from several derelict urban and industrial sites within the Essex part of Greater
London. The bug is a ground-dwelling species associated especially with Black Medick Medicago
lupulina (Kirby 1992).
Lygaeidae Drymus latus Notable/Mb, Essex Red Data species
The species was found in Area B. It is a local groundbug, confined to southern and eastern England.
In Essex there are several recent records of this species from dry grassland and derelict urban sites
in the southwest, and a rather isolated record from Foulness. It may well be rather widespread
along sea banks, but is a rather difficult species to record (occurring in small numbers, ground-
dwelling, and with no known plant associations). It is recorded from a range of habitats, including
chalk grassland, cliffs, ruderal communities, and wet and dry neutral grasslands.
Miridae Lygus pratensis RDB3, Essex Red Data species
The species was found in Area B. Old records of L. pratensis are invalidated by taxonomic changes;
formerly several species, including the very common L. rugulipennis were included under this
name. When the Essex Red Data list was prepared, it had not been recorded from Essex since the
taxonomy of the genus in Britain was adequately revised, but since 2000 the author has collected it
at a number of locations in south Essex. The species used to be thought of as a rare woodland ride
and edge species. On the continent, though, it has apparently always been a polyphagous species in
weedy places, and there's been the occasional British record definitely not connected with old
woodland. In the last few years, the bug has been recorded in the south-east, Hampshire to Kent to
Essex to Berkshire. The scattered old colonies may have spread, or there may have been a secondary
wave of continental immigration (P. Kirby, pers. comm.).
Miridae Deraeocoris flavilinea
The species was found in Areas B and D. This plant-bug is a recent addition to the British fauna and
was first recorded at Hackney Marsh in July 1996 (Miller, 2001). It is a predatory feeder, but is
usually associated with trees in the genus Acer, such as Sycamore. The bug has been spreading in
the London area and was recorded in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire in 2000, and may be
found in good numbers where it occurs (Nau & Brooke, 2003).
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 21 (2004)
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