A RARE creepy crawly whose home is a riverside town will be the star of a Worcestershire Wildlife Trust talk on Wednesday, June 25

Volunteers and staff will be holding an evening all about stag beetles in Upton-upon-Severn - the county's hotspot for the giants of the British beetle world.

Harry Green, who will be giving a talk on the evening, said: “Residents should be proud and delighted that they’ve got such rarities in their town and surrounding areas - they’re globally threatened and are protected in the UK."

The beetles are dependent on dead or rotting wood to breed which is one reason their numbers have been dropping because we have a tendency to tidy our recreational areas.

Mr Green said: “The Trust did a lot of work in Upton about twelve years ago to help raise awareness of the beetles and encourage householders to retain or to bury timber in their gardens to give the beetles a helping hand.

“The evening is to try to follow up on some of that work and to see how the stag beetles have got on over the last few years.

"We’d love to hear from people on the night about how many stag beetles they have or haven’t seen.”

Sightings of stag beetles including place name, location, date, quantity and preferably a photograph should be emailed to Worcestershire Biological Records Centre at records@wbrc.org.uk.

The free talk will take place at the Baptist Church between 45-47 Old Street, Upton upon Severn from 7.30pm

For more information, visit www.worcswildlifetrust.co.uk.