Recent field meetings at Esher Common July 2005

Two recent field meetings held at Esher Common are worth reporting.  Although neither was arranged by ENHS, both were attended by some of our members and provided important records and additional species for the Esher site.  These records will in due course be added to the Rucksack database created by Sandra Rickwood.

The first of these meetings was organised for the British Plant Gall Society on 3 July, led by BRIAN SPOONER.  It attracted some of the country's leading experts including Margaret Redfern, co-author of the recent identification keys, Michael Chinery, well known author of the Collins Guides to Insects, and Keith Harris, now retired as director of the Commonwealth Institute of Entomology and a specialist in Cecidomyiidae (gall midges).  Starting from the Horseshoe Clump car park, the party progressed slowly - even more slowly than the average fungus foray, though not quite so slowly as a lichen walk! - across part of West End Common and then over the road and on via the pylon line wayleave towards the ridge above Black Pond, where a stop was made for lunch. During the afternoon the party continued on along part of Longy Down, and then over the A3 footbridge to the small pond and mound.  A good number of records were obtained, confirming the presence of some species, such as the gall midge Physemocecis hartigi on leaves of Tilia, only recorded once before, and adding several more to the list.  New records included the gall midges Dasineura acrophila on Fraxinus and Drisina glutinosa on Sycamore, and the gall mite Cecidophyopsis psilaspis that induces 'big bud galls' on Taxus.  No fewer than 57 species of gall-causers were recorded during the day, as well as 30 non-gall-causing species, including new to the area sawfly Caliroa varipes, a larva of which was found on Aspen.

The second meeting of interest was held on 20 July, and arranged by JIM PORTER for the recording of micromoths as part of the county-wide survey currently underway.  This meeting involved, amongst others, John Langmaid, one of the country's leading specialists on micromoths, Bob Palmer, another micromoth specialist, and Graham Collins, county recorder and author of Larger Moths of Surrey and Butterflies of Surrey, both published by the Surrey Wildlife Trust.  Recording was done mainly from the leaf mines made by the larvae of the moths, although some adults were also found. Only lepidopterous leaf mines were considered in detail, though a few sawfly and dipterous mines were also recorded, as well as several other insects and spiders.  Although this meeting was only for the morning (as the party moved on to Bookham for the afternoon session) and got no further than Black Pond, an amazing total of 59 species was recorded.  At least 12 of these proved to be new records for the site.

Both of these meetings, as well as other recording work which has recently been undertaken at Esher by specialists such as Jonty Denton and Peter Chandler (Diptera), and also the regular moth evenings now run by Elmbridge Borough Council, show that the area is still of great importance for wildlife, with many rare or declining species present.

BRIAN SPOONER