1/ a weird thing about documenting wildlife in Ireland is that you can still 'find' big areas of high-quality habitat that no one's rly recognised the significance of. one of these is a series of flower-rich pastures that run from the E side of the Glenshane Pass up to Articlave

2/ these are scattered within the area shown, and are mostly heathy or wet pastures. the best of them support very rare Irish lady's tresses orchids (4 sites discovered since 2014) and declining butterfly orchids (15 new sites discovered since 2014)

3/ in places devil's-bit scabious is also abundant. this flower is crucial for many specialist invertebrates, including the marsh fritillary butterfly - first found here by @donnarainey4 in 2018, now recorded in 15 different townlands. its caterpillars eat the scabious leaves

4/ the spectacular narrow-bordered bee hawkmoth is another scabious specialist (found in 9 townlands since 2018), as is the v rare beetle Lebia cruxminor (discovered new for Co. Derry by @donnarainey4 this year!). Lebia feeds on another beetle, which in turn feeds on scabious

5/ we also rediscovered this huge beetle previously thought to be extinct in Co. Derry- Carabus clatratus, a wetland specialist in steep decline across Europe

6/ these pastures are mostly managed by cattle grazing with no fertiliser inputs. this is crucial - fertilisers or sheep grazing would promote grasses over wildflowers, and no grazing in this particular habitat would lead to loss of specialist species over time #wildflowerhour