Moth maps mania

The latest in an increasingly frequent line of 'natural history books that I have obtained' is the snappily titled 'Provisional Atlas of the UK's Larger Moths' brought to you by those really useful people at Butterfly Conservation. It costs £20 (plus postage and packing) and the only bad news is that the special offer that was on last week has now ended. If you have sent in any moth records to your county recorder since 2000 then you can play the 'spot my dot' game, where you work out if one of the dots on any given map of any given species is totally down to you. I reckon that I have two - for Striped Hawk-moth and Blair's Mocha from my back garden. In reality there may be more - after all, even common species might have been missing purely because nobody else thought that they were worth mentioning. The maps are fascinating, revealing the winners and unfortunately losers in moth populations. The maps only reveal distribution and not numbers, but every open circle (for records before 2000 but not recorded since) is a sad sight indeed. I needed only to glance at the distribution map for the V-Moth to understand why I have never seen one...

Comments

Stewart said…
I ordered it last week but dont know how long the delivery is?
24 January 2011 at 19:28
Bennyboymothman said…
I didn't order it after finding out they are available to print out online.
24 January 2011 at 20:09
Steve Gale said…
Stewart: mine arrived within 5 working days

Benny: I'd sooner pay the money and have a bound book with the maps neatly presented, plus contribute some money towards Butterfly Conservation.
24 January 2011 at 20:29
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