Willow Emerald Damselfly (Chalcolestes viridis) was recorded from the county for the first time in 2025, when Steve Preddy found two individuals at Mill Reen, near Magor on 15 August. This was the first time Willow Emerald had been recorded in Wales. Paul Greenard then found the species at Monks Ditch, near Goldcliff, and by the end of the summer, it had been discovered at a number of nearby sites on the Gwent Levels. Lee and Cathy Gregory discovered breeding evidence at Goldcliff that indicated that Willow Emerald had been with us undetected since at least 2024. Finally, away from the Levels, on 24 August Alan Underwood discovered a single male in his garden on the edge of the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park.

Willow Emerald has been rapidly spreading west across England over the last two decades, and had reached Gloucestershire and Somerset by 2023, so a record here was only a matter of time, but the number of records in August 2025 was a surprise. It’s very likely that this species will now colonise much more of the county over the next few years; it could even be present but undetected already away from the core areas on the eastern levels. In September 2025, Glamorgan logged its first record and the first for the northern half of Wales turned up near Welshpool.

Willow Emerald’s range in England now stretches across southern counties as far west as Dorset and Somerset, most of East Anglia and much of the Midlands. Herefordshire and Shropshire saw their first records in September 2025. Further north it has now reached Cheshire and Lancashire on the west coast, and Northumberland on the east coast. The first for Scotland is probably not far away. In continental Europe, its range reaches from the Baltic and southeast Europe west to the Iberian peninsula and south to Italy.