LLANDUDNO’s Ysgol San Sior has started a 12 month bioblitz moth census.

The school plans to record all species found on the school grounds to determine the health of the school grounds ecologically.

Headmaster Ian Keith Jones said: “We have installed moth traps so the children can see the biodiversity of the moth’s eco system. Children have a natural curiosity about the world around them.

"Moths are at the bottom of the food chain, they are preyed upon by bats and birds, but they are foundation of all the other things which live in the eco-system.

“The moth traps are devices which use ultra violet light to attract moths. The moths are disorientated by the light and fall through a hole into the trap. In the bottom of the trap are egg boxes which give them plenty of crevices where they can hide, but they can’t escape from the traps.

He added: “Seeing the moths helps with the children’s education, it helps their observation skills as they have to identify the different species of moths.

"We’ve caught as many as 130 or more different types here. There are about 1,700 different species of moths in Wales, and different moths come here at different times during the year.”

Ian said: “The children do a lot of research work in identifying the moths, looking up reference work and cataloguing what they have seen.

“This provides a huge amount of data which the children have to handle and that helps develop their mathematical skills.

“There is a lot the children can learn about the different types of moths and their characteristics, for example the emperor moth which can be found on Conwy mountain and can smell a female of the type up to seven miles away.

“We do let the go free once they have been observed and catalogued.”