Until now the only Welsh records for the Nationally Scarce Opilo mollis (Linnaeus) came from Denbighshire (VC 50), the NBN Atlas containing three very old records provided by the Welsh Invertebrate Database of Natural Resources Wales (NRW): Llangollen (SJ24), J. kidson Taylor, 1870, and J. Chappell, 1873; and Valle Crucis (SJ2044), J. Chappell, undated. Valle Crucis is a ruined medieval abbey in a well-wooded side valley of the River Dee just outside of Llangollen. Chappell is best known for his early records from Dunham Park, Manchester (VC 58) and Kidson Taylor from Sherwood Forest (VC 56). The latter's record of Opilo mollis from Llangollen was elsewhere described as from a hedge composed of maple, hazel, thorn and elm, in early June 1870 (Taylor, 1870). Chappell (1886) found his specimens under ash bark and by beating near Valle Crucis although the precise date is not provided - he indicated that his first visit to the area was 'about twelve years ago' but that he had also been there since; the origin of the 1873 date is unknown to me as it does not quite fit with Chappell's text. Opilo mollis had not been found subsequently in any Welsh county despite extensive research into saproxylic beetle habitats led by NRW and its predecessor agency, the Countryside Council for Wales. It is interesting to report that I have found the beetle from two new Welsh localities and in two additional counties.
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