We’ve recorded 313 species of insect at The Meadowlands so far.

The Meadowlands has retained pockets of species-rich grassland that have escaped agricultural improvement. They are particularly rich in Bird’s Foot Trefoil, which means the sites support lots of insects that feed on it such as Dingy Skipper Erynnis tages, Common Blue Polyommatus icarus, and Six-spot burnet moth Zygaena filipendulae. The site is also rich in other old grassland associates like Marbled White butterflies Melanargia galathea, Mother Shipton moths Callistege mi, and the very rare Long-horned bee Eucera longicornis.

The cattle are not wormed which means their dung plays host to dung beetles like Night-flying Dung Beetle Acrossus rufipes and Common Dor Beetle Geotrupes stercorarius. This in turn supports a wider ecosystem usually missing from intensively managed farms.

Our ponds provide rich habitat for flying insects, which in summer are preyed on by House Martins and bats.