Today is the last in our series of spotlights on species that you might see during your Make Your Nature Count survey. And what a handsome beastie we've got for you!

Holding the title of Britain's largest beetle, I present to you the stag beetle:

Stag beetle facing the camera with antlers raised.

I first fell in love with stag beetles when our family moved house. At just aged 5 I was exploring our new garden and happened to overturn a large stone.

Underneath was the most impressive looking creature I'd ever seen. It raised its fearsome-looking antlers at me and waved them about a bit. After deciding I wasn't going to run away - it did!

That's my one and only encounter with a stag beetle, but it was brilliant!

Beetle hide and seek

The funny thing is, stag beetles spend much of their lives as a white and squidgy muching machine. The beetle larvae spend five years underground turning rotting and dead wood into fat.

When ready, they turn into a pupa from which an adult emerges six weeks later. But they still don't pop their heads above ground. No, they spend a further year underground and only break the soil for a brief 15-40 days to find a mate and lay eggs before dying - their job done.

Seeing stags

Stag beetles won't be seen by everyone. They seem to prefer South East England, although no-one really knows why.

It might have something to do with the fungi they need to help them digest wood can't survive in chalky areas, which limits their ability to disperse over chalky landscape. But I'm now getting a bit ropey in my explanation, so will let Chris Packham explain that theory to you in more detail.

If you live in the right area and would like to help these fab little critters, you can do no better than create a log pile.

Needless to say, I think stag beetles are great and if you've got one in your garden I'm more than a little bit jealous.

Get all the latest news fromYnys-hir - the home of BBC Springwatch 2011!