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Species descriptions
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The British micro-moths have in the past been largely under-recorded. This has been due to their small size, the large number of species and the difficulty involved in identifying many of them. Part of the problem with identification has been the lack of well illustrated literature that was available. This has been at least partly rectified with the more modern books such as The Moths and Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland Volumes 1 to 4., Heath, J., Emmet, A.M., and Langmaid, J.R., et al. (Harley Books, 1983 to 2002), but it is still the case that a variety of books are necessary to identify these small moths. Many of them can only be accurately identified by dissecting the moth and examining the genitalia. This requires some specialist knowledge, patience and time, which means that it may be some years before the true status of many of these moths is known. It is fortunate that as well as the The Moths and Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland series, there are now many well illustrated European books available. As the micro-moths are usually referred to by their scientific name, which is in latin, and the size and flight periods are numeric, these books are useful to the British reader even if he or she does not understand the language in which they are written. The aim of this section of 'WildGuideUK' is to illustrate with photographs, as many of the British micro-moths as possible. As the author of this site has already photographed hundreds of species, time is the only obstacle to this happening. Please note that the lengths quoted in the moth species descriptions are the measured lengths of the photographed specimens, from the most forward part of the snout to the tip of the wing. |
Species descriptions |
