Identifying moths

You might find Xanthia togata, the colourful 'Pink Barred Sallow' - CC image by Lymantria

 The Bird Guides website has an article about moths you're likely to find in Britain in the autumn and early winter: that certainly looks like essential reading. You'll also see links to other 'moths of the season' pages on species you'll find from February onwards.

Another place with moths month-by-month is Butterfly Conservation's 'Moths on the Wing'. 
The pages are based on Yorkshire captures, but shouldn't be so dissimilar to here. 

You'll probably find it's useful to be aware of the features of the different families. If you scroll down on this page at OPAL you'll find links to 'moth tips 2 and 3', which are an excellent overview, and come recommended from use on the Dartmoor field course. I can print you copies if you ask nicely.

They've been written with Waring and Townsend's 'Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland' in mind. This book is great for detailed information about the species' habitat, flight period and distribution. It also describes the characteristics of each species and compares similar species. The only trouble with it is that the descriptions do not sit near the illustrations (beautifully drawn by Richard Lewington).

But this is solved with Townsend and Waring's 'Concise Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland' - the plates are all on the right hand side of the pages, and the descriptions on the left. The book isn't very expensive if you want to buy one, although we do have a couple of copies. I think I would recommend a look at both the field guide and the concise guide.

We've also a copy of 'British Moths and Butterflies - a photographic guide' by Chris Manley. This is a very good companion book too, because it uses photographs rather than drawings, and sometimes it's useful to see a 'real' illustration. 

There are also very good online resources - for example UKMoths  - but it probably helps to use this more as confirmation once you've got a good idea from the books above. You might like Norfolk Moths (although no, we're not in Norfolk). You can see a range of daytime-flying moths at Butterfly Conservation.

The rather lovely micromoth, Tinea trinotella. CC image by Kulac.

Like everything else in the universe, the deeper you go, it seems the more there is to find out. And with moths, you'll discover that there are 'micro moths' (you've guessed it, they're generally, though not exclusively, small). And there are a lot of them. And they're not often easy to identify. Chris Manley's book (above) has photos, and they're also featured on the various websites. Butterfly Conservation have a list of some more easily recognised species. But they might be something to worry about more once you've got some experience - you could certainly stick to the macro moths for your collection.

The other thing that advanced lepidopterists get involved with in identifying species is the dissection of moth genitalia. At the moment I wouldn't have the will or the patience for this, but if you really get the moth bug you might find yourself doing it. A recent book on distinguishing difficult macro moths (which includes dissection for many species) has been written by Townsend, Clifton and Goodey and has kindly been made available online. You're asked to show your use of dichotomous keys for this assessment - but with moths, general keys really don't exist. There are a few in this book, but it's very specialist stuff. So feel free to confirm it with Katy - but I think in this instance you will be let off. You'll still need to show why your creature is one thing and not another - you'll to know and explain what the differences are between different families and different species.

And I'll probably receive hate mail from the moth-fancying community for saying this, but I don't particularly want to recommend the classic Moth Bible, that is, Skinner's 'Colour Identification Guide to Moths of the British Isles'. The reason is, it shows the moths with their wings completely spread out as you would traditionally pin them. It doesn't show them as you will see them alive and in a resting position. And for me as a beginner, that makes the book much less useful. Others will (vehemently) disagree.

Read on for information on labelling and displaying your specimens.