My last visit to Heydon for this year was rewarded with a surprise - Euchromius ocellea

This year I have a new project trapping in a chalk pit at Heydon which is in Cambridgeshire politically but in North Essex vice county for biological records. I made my first visit on 11/04. It seemed pretty disappointing at the time with only 33 moths of 17 species - but when I got home I was pleasantly surprised to find that a tortrix I couldn't identify on site was 49.262 Phaneta pauperana - the 7th Essex record and the first since 2004.

1759 species presented

I have updated the vernacular names of all the micro-moths with the new names provided by Sterling and Parsons. After some initial reluctance to accept either that anyone should assume the right to change all these names, or that they should do so so soon after publication of a different set of vernacular name, I have accepted that with the field guide likely to be used by most British moth-ers the new names will inevitably come to be in use.

Some of the changes are good - especially where the name provides a clue to which family a moth is in eg 
Micropterigidae = Pollen-moths, Nepticulidae = Dots, Opostegidae = Caps, Bucculatricidae = Tufts
Other changes had the opposite effect eg Argyresthiidae were nearly all Argents and now they are mostly Tip Moths. Instead of nearly all Depressariidae being "Flat-body" they now have a mix of names many of which are shared with other families. Inconsistent use of hyphenation is also annoying eg Leaf-miner / Shoot Borer; Bark Moth / House-moth. Confusingly and stupidly some moths have had the vernacular name that was applied to one species applied to a different species (Mouse-ear Groundling, Common Groundling, Buff Mompha). Overall I would say that an opportunity has been taken to improve the English vernacular names of the micro-moths and has ended up fiddling with them without achieving this aim.

I have updated the Checklist of the moths of the British Isles to include changes from the 7th Update as published in Ent Rec Jan/Feb 2024 and changed the names of all the micromoths as published in the 2nd edition of Sterling & Parsons. 

Whilst changing the vernacular name of the Momphas I noticed that the banner image on the M.propinquella page was almost certainly M.lacteella. Further investigation suggested that a further 2 of the specimens presented as M.propinquella were actually M.lacteella. The latter has now been added to this site.

Two species sent to me by Roberta Legg have been added to the site.
Unfortunately, although these specimens arrived in good condition and I carefully dissected and photographed them, none of the images taken on my microscope camera during dissection were recorded on the SD card.

1758 species presented

1751 Species presented

A 2 day trip to Portland, Dorset at the end of August produced only one new species

An evening at Haugh Woods, Herefordshire (a detour on the way back from Cumbria to Essex) on 7th was successful in finding Oak Lutestring, 17 of them by 11pm.

Trapping on Foulness on 9th I obtained my first Beautiful Marbled, unfortunately not the most beautiful specimen.

Trapping on St Mary's, Isles of Scilly has added Diasemiopsis ramburialis

The genital determination service has added two species: 15.013 Caloptilia hemidactylella, obtained by Simon Wood, is a FIRST FOR ESSEX; and 49.0388 Clepsis peritana, obtained by Daniel Blyton is the SECOND FOR BRITAIN - this was first recorded in Staffordshire on 20th July 2023.

1749 species presented