Moth Recording

Records should be submitted as soon as possible after being taken. It is a lot easier to do this than be faced with a mountain of un-entered records at the end of the season.
Information about submitting moth records to iRecord can be found here

County Moth Recorders

There are three County Moth Recorders, one for each of the counties covered by the Branch. Your CMR can help with moth identification, but they may need to see a good quality photo or the moth specimen for confirmation. Please contact your CMR as soon as possible if you think you have found a rare moth.
  • Berkshire (VC22):
  • Oxfordshire (VC23):
  • Buckinghamshire (VC24):

Moth Identification Resources

The recommended macro-moth identification book is the third edition of The Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland by Paul Waring and Martin Townsend (2017, Bloomsbury Wildlife Guides). It contains artwork by Richard Lewington that depicts the 900 or so larger British moth species in their natural resting positions. A cheaper alternative is the Concise Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland by the same authors (2019, Bloomsbury Wildlife Guides). The other standard work is the third edition of the Colour Identification Guide to Moths of the British Isles by Bernard Skinner (2009, Apollo Books). The illustrations take the form of photographs of set specimens, which means that the hind wings (often important for identification) are clearly shown.
For micro-moths, the recommended book is the Field Guide to the Micro-moths of Great Britain and Ireland by Phil Sterling and Mark Parsons. The second edition was published in 2023 and covers just over 1,000 species (Bloomsbury Wildlife Guides). Similar in style and format to the macro-moth field guide, the illustrations are by Richard Lewington.
On the web the most comprehensive coverage of all British moths 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. A new web resource is UpperThamesMoths.co.uk by Jim Wheeler. This contains UTB records for macro and micro-moths up to the end of 2022. Knowing what has been recorded flying tonight is a useful identification aid. Click What's Flying Tonight to find out what is flying in week 17 of 2024 .