British Lepidoptera Checklist
In 2013 A Checklist of the Lepidoptera of the British Isles was published by the Royal Entomological Society; Agassiz, Beavan & Heckford.
This was updated on 7 occasions, with the amendments published in the Entomologists's Record.
In 2024 a 2nd edition of the full list was published and the first amendments to this 2nd edition were published in the Entomologists record early in 2025.
In theory the current version of the checklist is maintained at the Angela Marmont Centre at the Natural History Museum, London. In practice, if such a record is maintained it is not generally accessible. Personal communication with Bob Heckford suggests that the authors of the checklist and its updates accept no responsibility for making the checklist generally available for use by county recorders and other interested Lepidopterists.
I have transcribed the original checklist onto an Excel spreadsheet and updated it with all 8 of the updates. This can be downloaded free of charge below. A lot of work went into the preparation of this spreadsheet and so I ask anyone who does download it to consider making a donation towards the maintenance of this website.
This was updated on 7 occasions, with the amendments published in the Entomologists's Record.
In 2024 a 2nd edition of the full list was published and the first amendments to this 2nd edition were published in the Entomologists record early in 2025.
In theory the current version of the checklist is maintained at the Angela Marmont Centre at the Natural History Museum, London. In practice, if such a record is maintained it is not generally accessible. Personal communication with Bob Heckford suggests that the authors of the checklist and its updates accept no responsibility for making the checklist generally available for use by county recorders and other interested Lepidopterists.
I have transcribed the original checklist onto an Excel spreadsheet and updated it with all 8 of the updates. This can be downloaded free of charge below. A lot of work went into the preparation of this spreadsheet and so I ask anyone who does download it to consider making a donation towards the maintenance of this website.
|
| ||
The spreadsheet lists 2583 species on the main list (I have not listed species from the Appendix). The 1st amendment to the 2nd edition quotes 2582 species. I have not listed citations or synonyms - for these the original checklist (2nd edition) and its update should be consulted.
I have greyed-out 61 species that are deemed extinct in Britain. The official census has 54 extinct species.
I have identified 4 species as extinct that are not recorded as extinct on the RES checklist:
11.013 Psyche crassiorella, 28.011 Borkhausenia minutella, 49.168 Celypha doubledayana, 49.331 Cydia corollana
And two species that are listed as extinct for which there is evidence that they are extant:
28.018 Epicallima formosella, 49.117 Aethes margarotana
The remainder of the discrepancy is probably due to me recording species that are extinct in Britain but survive in Ireland or the Channel Isles.
I have also greyed out 9 species that I (and others) regard as doubtfully British and two species that I do not recognise as valid (Cnephasia pumicana and Noctua tertia).
10 species on the list have only been recorded on the Channel Islands and 4 species have only been recorded in Ireland.
5 lines on the spreadsheet are now vacant:
11.008 Luffia ferchaultella having been assimilated under 11.009 Luffia lapidella
35.019 Anarsia lineatella - all records now considered to be 35.0191 Anarsia innoxiella
70.271 after acceptance that Small Engrailed does not qualify as a species
73.292 Matthew's Wainscot having been assimilated under 73.291 Mythimna pallens (Common wainscot))
73.231 Deep-brown Dart and Northern Deep-brown Dart having been assimilated under 73.232 Aporophyla lueneburgensis
For the 2024 update I changed all the English names of the micromoths to match those provide in the 2nd Edition of Sterling & Parsons
(even though many of these are not an improvement on those previously assigned)
The spreadsheet has 14 columns:
A: Suborder, B: Infraorder, C: Superfamily - all transitions marked by a change in fill colour
D: Family - divisions marked by a thick line
E: Subfamily, F: Tribe - divisions marked by a thin line
G: Log number for the family, H: Log number for the species
I: Complete log number (formatted to work with the moth recording spreadsheet of the Essex Field Club)
J: Genus, K: Species
L: Full species name*
M: English name
* Column L is concatenated from columns J and K. If you only want to use the detail in column L: Select column L > copy > paste special>values before deleting column J&K (If you delete J&K without doing this the content of L will disappear)
I have greyed-out 61 species that are deemed extinct in Britain. The official census has 54 extinct species.
I have identified 4 species as extinct that are not recorded as extinct on the RES checklist:
11.013 Psyche crassiorella, 28.011 Borkhausenia minutella, 49.168 Celypha doubledayana, 49.331 Cydia corollana
And two species that are listed as extinct for which there is evidence that they are extant:
28.018 Epicallima formosella, 49.117 Aethes margarotana
The remainder of the discrepancy is probably due to me recording species that are extinct in Britain but survive in Ireland or the Channel Isles.
I have also greyed out 9 species that I (and others) regard as doubtfully British and two species that I do not recognise as valid (Cnephasia pumicana and Noctua tertia).
10 species on the list have only been recorded on the Channel Islands and 4 species have only been recorded in Ireland.
5 lines on the spreadsheet are now vacant:
11.008 Luffia ferchaultella having been assimilated under 11.009 Luffia lapidella
35.019 Anarsia lineatella - all records now considered to be 35.0191 Anarsia innoxiella
70.271 after acceptance that Small Engrailed does not qualify as a species
73.292 Matthew's Wainscot having been assimilated under 73.291 Mythimna pallens (Common wainscot))
73.231 Deep-brown Dart and Northern Deep-brown Dart having been assimilated under 73.232 Aporophyla lueneburgensis
For the 2024 update I changed all the English names of the micromoths to match those provide in the 2nd Edition of Sterling & Parsons
(even though many of these are not an improvement on those previously assigned)
The spreadsheet has 14 columns:
A: Suborder, B: Infraorder, C: Superfamily - all transitions marked by a change in fill colour
D: Family - divisions marked by a thick line
E: Subfamily, F: Tribe - divisions marked by a thin line
G: Log number for the family, H: Log number for the species
I: Complete log number (formatted to work with the moth recording spreadsheet of the Essex Field Club)
J: Genus, K: Species
L: Full species name*
M: English name
* Column L is concatenated from columns J and K. If you only want to use the detail in column L: Select column L > copy > paste special>values before deleting column J&K (If you delete J&K without doing this the content of L will disappear)
11.013 28.011 49.168 49.331 extinct but not listed as extinct
28.018 49.117 listed as extinct but isn't
28.018 49.117 listed as extinct but isn't
