The Lyons Share

Provisional Atlas of the UK's Larger Moths

Posted by Graeme Lyons , Wednesday, 12 January 2011 18:24

I don't do many book reviews but I thought this one was worth a mention. It is a great piece of work and an amazing achievement by the Moths Count team, updated distribution maps for all the macro moths in the UK. I was on the steering group for the Moths Count project back when I worked for the RSPB and so I have a particular interest in it.

If you are a moth-er, you'll find this to be compulsive page turning. So many moths are surprisingly scarce  (or occasionally surprisingly abundant). No wonder I have never seen a Lappet or a Northern Drab, they might even be nationally scarce if they were assessed today! There are literally millions of records in the data base that produced these maps, 868 species mapped in all, awesome! It's an essential companion to an ID guide.

You can buy it from the Butterfly Conservation website at £20 plus £5.00 P&P and has been so popular that  it is currently undergoing a reprint.

Finally, I have to point out two of my records on the map for the ridiculously named Bloxworth Snout. The one in West Sussex (the 8th Sussex record) I found in a cave in 2008, the one in Brighton (the 9th Sussex record) I found in a book shop...in the Mr Men section but that is another story...

Posted in books, moths

3 Response to "Provisional Atlas of the UK's Larger Moths"

Martin Harvey Says:

According to Richard South, the Bloxworth Snout's name comes from having first been found, in 1884, at Bloxworth, Dorset, on a "door-jamb" in a garden, so your locations seem entirely consistent with its historical habitat!

12 January 2011 at 19:57

Graeme Lyons Says:

Thanks Martin. The Waterstone's specimen was a farce. I followed the moth into the shop, then into the kids section and then I wasn't 100% sure on the ID so I asked the kid on the check out for a box to put a moth in. He brought back a box big enough to put a TV in.

12 January 2011 at 20:33

Lucy Corrander Now in Halifax! Says:

Moths often get neglected in favour of butterflies, which is a shame.

Lucy

14 January 2011 at 18:20