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| Upper Thames Branch | ||||
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UTB Moths Getting StartedIf you've never recorded moths before then a good starting
point is to look for some of the most common and easily identifiable moths.
These include moths which can be seen nectaring on flowers and actively flying
during the daytime and also those which can frequently be disturbed while out
walking. At night you can find moths which are attracted to house lights.
UTB Moth SpeciesThere are some 900 British macro-moths, two thirds of which
can be found in the three counties of the Upper Thames Branch. A complete list of
UTB Moth Species, as reported to the
Moth Sightings page of this website,
and some interesting charts and statistics can be found
here.
Moth Identification ResourcesBooks: If, as a newcomer to moths, you are searching for an identification guide then you need look no further than the second edition of "The Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland" by Paul Waring and Martin Townsend (2009, British Wildlife Publishing, ISBN 978-0-9531399-8-9). First published in 2003, this field guide was fully revised in 2009. It contains artwork by Richard Lewington that depicts the 900 or so larger British moth species in their natural resting positions. Available in both paperback and hardback form, the recommended retail price of the paperback is £29.95. A cheaper alternative is the "Concise Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland" by the same authors (2007, British Wildlife Publishing, ISBN 978-0-9531399-6-5). This is a spiral-bound, cutback version with all of the illustrations of the original 2003 volume but with only the bare minimum of text. The recommended retail price is £12.95. The other standard work on British macro-moths is the third edition of the "Colour Identification Guide to Moths of the British Isles" by Bernard Skinner (2009, Apollo Books, ISBN 978-87-88757-90-3). This book was also updated in 2009 under its new publisher. The illustrations take the form of photographs of set specimens, which means that the hind wings (often important for identification) are clearly shown. Prices vary between retailers but you should be able to find it for about £48. If you can afford to have both this and the Waring & Townsend volume then you'll find that they complement each other. So far as the roughly 1,500 micro-moths are concerned there is currently no single comprehensive guide available. Some families have been covered to a greater or lesser extent but the works involved are generally very expensive indeed. For the beginner it is at present better to use Internet-based resources when trying to identify the smaller species. At the local level there are as yet no county atlases or even recent county lists available for Buckinghamshire or Oxfordshire. The book "Butterflies and Moths of Berkshire" by Brian Baker (1994, Hedera Press, ISBN 0-86096-025-0) is now considerably out of date and is nowhere near as user-friendly as the volume against which all county atlases are now compared, namely Colin Plant's "Moths of Hertfordshire" (2008, HNHS, ISBN 978-0-9521685-7-7). Covering a county adjacent to the Upper Thames Branch area, the Hertfordshire atlas would certainly be a useful, if expensive (at around £45), addition to the serious local moth enthusiast's bookshelf. Web-sites: The most comprehensive coverage of all British moths available on the Internet is the "UK Moths" website run by Ian Kimber. Some 2,000 of the 2,400 species on the British list are currently illustrated there. Several of the regional moth groups have also developed excellent web-based resources to help with identification and those of the Hants Moth Group and Suffolk Moth Group are particularly useful. Other useful information, such as 'Moths by month' and 'Common moths through the year' can be found on the Berks Moth Group website by clicking on their 'Resources' menu option. Getting Help: There are two UK-wide "Yahoo!" e-mail groups dealing with moths, one concentrating
mainly on the larger species
(http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ukmoths/) and the other on the
micro-moths
(http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ukmicromoths/).
Both can be very useful indeed for getting help with identification problems. It is necessary to join up as
a member but this is normally just a formality. Neither group permits e-mail attachments but pictures can be
uploaded to the photo section of each with relative ease. Several regional moth groups also have their own "Yahoo!"
e-mail community, including the Berkshire Moth Group
(http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/berkshiremothgroup/).
Other places where identification help can be obtained include the
"Back Garden Moths" website and the
Open University's "iSpot" facility.
Recording MothsThe Upper Thames Branch has three County Moth Recorders,
one for each of the counties covered by the Branch. Please send your moth records to
the appropriate County Moth Recorder.
The County Moth Recorders can help you to identify moths,
but they may need to see a good quality photo or the moth specimen to confirm identifications.
If you think you have found a rare moth then please contact your County Moth Recorder as
soon as possible:
The vital information required by the County Moth Recorders
in order to add a moth record to their database is:
The biggest difference is that much of what we now call south-west
Oxfordshire (i.e. from the Thames south-westwards) is in vice-county 22, Berkshire, for moth
recording purposes. Similarly, Slough is in VC24, Buckinghamshire, and Stokenchurch
is in VC23, Oxfordshire. Some towns that might or might not be in the counties you expect :
Computerising your own moth records can be very helpful, not least because it saves the moth recorders from having to retype everything! Please contact your county moth recorder for further details. The excellent MapMate database, which allows easy exchange of records, is one of the most popular moth recording databases. Finally, it is very useful if you can supply some information about
how you identify your moths. Moths can be difficult to identify and it is important that
the Branch does what it can to ensure that all records are as accurate as possible – records
form the basis of our conservation management advice and rare species monitoring. It is
very helpful if you can let the recorders know what books you use for identification
and whether you have photos or specimens of any of the moths you have seen.
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