1. Silent Valley nature reserve – A trip to Silent Valley is great for bugs. You may see the increasingly scarce Grayling butterfly that thrives on the areas of old spoil (you will need to look close it is well camouflaged!). The incredibly energetic Green Tiger Beetle can also be found, as well as he aptly named Golden Ringed Dragonfly. The huge mounds in the grassland show the underground presence of 1000’s of Yellow Meadow Ants busily going about their work.   

2. Pentwyn Farm – Similar to our other hay meadows such as Springdale and New Grove, these areas hold vast numbers of insects attracted by the huge diversity of flora. The meadows throb with the sound of bees buzzing and grasshoppers chirruping, as well a multitude of different butterflies flitting from flower to flower, including the showy Marbled White.

3. Gwent Levels – this area is known for having thousands of types of watery bugs in its waterways knowns locally as reens. These include the very impressive King Diving Beetle and Great Diving Beetle, and according to a recent report it has many rare Saproxylic (wood boring beetles) present also - see more on this report here. The area is also home to the UK’s rarest Bumble Bee, the Shrill Carder Bee. Not to mention the great variety of dragon/damselflies that patrol the area.

4. Piercefield Woods - these ancient trees are habitat in their right and contain many very rare insect species such as Cosnard’s Net Winged beetle, not currently recorded anywhere else in Wales and the Lime Bast Bark beetle that again is only recorded in Wales from the Piercefield/ Wyndcliff woodlands.

5. Brockwells Meadows – this area of scarce calcareous grassland abounds with insects in the summer, including a good few scarcities. These include the scarce and spectacular Hornet Robber Fly, the rare Large Scabious Mining Bee and by far our largest bush-cricket, the enormous Great Green Bush Cricket.

Thank you to everyone who took part in last year’s Bug’s Matter survey. And we hope many of you will sign up to this summer’s Bugs Matter survey .

The survey runs from June 1 - August 31, 2022.

Please use the app and Splatometer to take part because bugs really do matter!