Invertebrate survey at Gunpowder Park, the former Royal Ordnance Site in the Lee Valley
light soils, including heathland, dry grassland and scrub, open woodland, coastal landslip and soft
Tock cliffs, quarries and post industrial sites (Edwards & Telfer 2001).
MYRIAPODA - centipedes and millipedes
Henicopidae Lamyctes fulvicornis Essex Red Data species, Essex Threatened
The species was found in Areas B2 and D. This centipede seems to be more common nationally in
upland and northern areas, and there are few records in Essex, all from sparsely vegetated habitats
on poor substrate. The only previous records are from Temple Mills (Waltham Forest), now largely
destroyed, and three sites in south Essex near the Thames.
ODONATA - dragonflies
Libellulidae Sympetrum sanguineum Notable/Nb, Essex Red Data species
The species was seen in Arca D. Sympetrum sanguineum is a bright red darter dragonfly with
markedly 'club-tailed1 abdomen. It has a south-eastern distribution in Britain and is rare in south-
west England and Wales and becomes scarce in the north-Midlands extending as far north as Barnsley.
It has shown a marked increase in abundance in recent decades and may be spreading northwards.
It breeds in the marshy margins of ponds, lakes, old gravel and clay pits, canals and ditches where
there is an abundance of tall emergent plants. It can tolerate quite brackish conditions and occurs in
coastal grazing marshes where sea club rush is often dominant, and is often found in the company
of Lestes dryas, using richly vegetated and brackish sites such as coastal and estuarine dykes choked
with Sea Club-rush or Reed-mace (Benton 1988).
ORTHOPTERA- grasshoppers and crickets
Conocephalidae Conocephalus discolor Notable/Na, Essex Red Data species
The species was found in Areas B, B2 and C. Conocephalus discolor is a small brown and green
bush cricket which inhabits areas of long grass, reeds or rushes in wet places. Until recent years it
was almost always found within a few miles of the sea and confined to the south coastal area, with
records from Dorset, Hampshire, Sussex and Kent. However- it has been spreading widely and was
first recorded in the extreme west of Essex in 1995. It has now colonised more than thirteen 10km
squares (Gardiner 2003).
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 21 (2004)
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