The Branch's County Moth Recorders are responsible for the validation of all submitted records before sending them on to form part of the national database, the National Moth Recording Scheme. To further add value for moth conservation, records may be shared with other moth recorders, with relevant biological records centres, with the Scottish Wildlife Trust, and with other recording schemes and conservation organisations. In return we will try to provide information and support to you, e.g. if you want help with identifications or to know what has already been recorded at your site or in your area contact the relevant County Moth Recorder.
We are very keen for people who record in their gardens or in the wider countryside to send in their moth records. Your records may be of day flying moths, those seen on a wall around outside house lights or those trapped using specialist light traps.
Submissions should be made preferably using Excel to the relevant vice county moth recorder. Template submission forms can be downloaded from the links below. These ease both your record capture, species validation and also the inclusion of records into the Vice County database. Alternatively, particularly for small numbers or ad hoc records, these can be entered into the Moths Count Online Recording system. Some County Moth Recorders also accept records submitted via the iRecord Moth Recording form, but please check with your own CMR before using this or agree to download your records each year to email it to them.
The up to date list of County Moth Recorders across the UK is maintained by Butterfly Conservation headquarters.
If you need to contact one of the recorders then please use our Moth Recorder Contact Form.
The Vice County recorder may query records from recorders, particularly inexperienced trappers. Please do not be offended by this. It is very important that records on the central database are accurate and we are anxious to avoid unverified records of certain difficult species being entered. Many species are common and easy to identify, but many can only be identified by genitalia examination. Between these two extremes are moths whose identification may be tricky, and records from experienced observers may be accepted more easily than those from the new moth trapper. Some VC Recorders may issue a grading list with an indication of the evidence required for particular species, but even this should be regarded as a guide based on your experience.
The NMRS have issued the 2017 Scottish Macro Moth List which is useful in understanding the status of the moth species in Scotland and therefore provides a useful guide for observers. Similarly there is a Scottish Micro Moth Guidance List which shows which of the British micro species have been recorded in Scotland and for each of Adults, Mines and Cases and provides references to the associated guidance document on the evidence required for identification. The NMRS also has a Data Policy that covers the principles and specifics about how it will handle any data that you will submit. For those species requiring genitalia identification then you may wish to review the Code of conduct for collecting insects.