This facility allows for the construction of a hectad-level species density map. The choice can be made as to whether to show macro-moths only, micro-moths only, butterflies only or everything. The resulting maps partially reflect true species richness but mostly just recorder effort.

Hectads that are shared with other counties may actually be better recorded than they appear as only the North Wales records are counted. Coastal hectads usually have richer, more diverse habitats than inland hectads but may be disadvantaged by having little land area.

It should be understood that the map is constructed afresh, i.e. in real-time, when the 'Go' button is pressed and this involves querying the database for each hectad in turn, forming a species list, counting it and then, finally, plotting the result. All of this is very demanding of computer resources. It will take time to complete - perhaps up to 15 seconds - so please do be patient. Of course, the final result depends on the current contents of the database which is unlikely to be fully up-to-date or, to put it another way, it cannot show records that have not been submitted.

Colours are used to highlight the best hectads (red), the least good hectads (blue) and those in between (green). The species counts at which the colour changes can be changed if desired. The pre-selected numbers are only suggestions to get you started.

macros micros moths butterflies all

X         Y             blue: count  < X     green: count >=X AND < Y           red: count > =Y

(Use back button to return)