The St Madoc Centre Blog

Buzzing about the dunes

Mark Pavett scouting for bees

Last week we were lucky to have Mark Pavett, a Curator at the National Museum of Wales, visiting us. Mark works for the Entomology Department at the museum, which means that he is an expert in the study of insects, and he spent a day looking around the site and identifying bees.

We won't have his species list back for a while yet as he took over 30 samples and needs some time to investigate but we will let you know what he found as soon as we get the results back. What we do know is that we definitely have at least one member of the Osmia genus which nests in shells (something we definitely have in abundance here) which we now know to look for when we're showing guests around the site.

A very shy
Andrena barbilabris

New species for The St Madoc Centre

Even more excitingly, last week's visiting school children discovered a new species for our site while exploring the sand dunes, which Mark was able identify as Andrena barbilabris, a species often found on heath and sandy areas.

Our captured bee was a little shy for the camera, but you can read more about this species and see more detailed photos on the Nature Guide UK website. Congratulations to the pupils from Burlais Primary School who found this new addition to our species list!

More insect activity coming up

We will be running a butterfly identification walk here at the Centre from 11am-1pm on Sunday 27th July. This event will teach attendees some introductory butterfly identification skills and demonstrate butterfly survey techniques as part of a walk around our special sand dune habitat. This event is free and open to all ages, but booking is essential. 

Contact us on 01792 386291 or info@stmadoc.co.uk to book a place or for more information.