Butterflies, being day flyers and usually rather strikingly marked are without doubt among the most well known and indeed well loved of Britains insects, (except for the Large, and Cabbage whites that is!).

The sight on a warm spring day of the first Small Tortoiseshells and Peacocks rushing about searching for flowers is cheering indeed, and many are entranced by the beautiful blues and the ever handsome Red Admirals, the latter often seen around buddleja bushes.

Moths on the other hand are more likely to evoke dark mutterings as they hurtle wildly around the bedroom lamp crashing into all and sundry, particularly the human occupants, only to vanish with alarming skill under the bedclothes, pillows, or any other place that will cause maximum disruption to the evenings peace, and even when you get to see it, well, what on earth is it? A confusion of dark brown, in fact positively dingy markings that would be hard pressed to excite any interest at all. At least that is the most commonly held view of moths that I have come across whenever I mention my interest in them!

But although many of Britains moths are, at first glance rather drab, the key to enjoying them lies in avoiding making that first glance judgement, for very often, given a closer look, most if not all will reward the careful observer with a beautiful, yet very subtle display of unexpected colour and variety, often showing metalic sheens of green and purple with intricate patterns and designs of striking beauty.

Moths are, for the practical purposes of basic observation, divided into two main groups and a couple of further divisions from there.

The first two groups are the Macros and the Micros, fairly self explanatory, but not, in practice, completely logical. Macros are, naturally, the larger Moths species whilst Micros are the smaller. Some Macros though can in fact be smaller than some micros! ("Mother of Pearl" is a Pyralid moth listed among the micros, yet is considearbly larger than the notoriously difficult to identify group of of Macro geometers called "Pugs")

Macros are further sub divided into several family types of which there are two large groups and several smaller groups.

Ther first Large group are called Geometers from the ancient Greek Geo Metron-- to measure land. This may seem a very odd name for a group of Moths, but the name really applies to this particular group's caterpillars, whose looping gait has earned them the English term "Inchworms" because they seem to be measuring out the length of whatever they are marching along.

Geometer moths are, in the main, those moths whose flight and general wing shape most resembles the butterflies, they are very fluttery in flight and are often seen around lights.

The next group are called Noctuid Moths (from the Latin, Noctua -- Night Owl). These then are the fast flying brown jobs that often drive you to distraction in the bedroom, or wherever else they may choose to hurtle, but also they are among the most accesible and delightfully marked of the moths.

Other groups are Hawk Moths, Tiger Moths, Swifts, Burnets and several others that I will highlight if, as and when they appear.

The Micros are a disparate bunch, consisting of many hundreds of different species, many of which are very small. Clothes moths, grass moths, tortrix moths and many, many more make up this group. Rather unfortunately virtually all of these micros have Latin names only, which, while they are often accurately descriptive, nevertheless are out of reach of most folks seeing as Latin is not really a commonly understood language anymore. The primary drawback of this of course, is that, for all but a few people, the names are really not at all memorable even if the appearance is very striking. Also, reference books to identify micros are pretty expensive and really they need to be a specialist interest to justify such a purchase.

However, if your interest is piqued to the extent that you would like to identify the larger moths then an Excellent Macro moth book, in fact probably the very best book available is "Colour indentification Guide to Moths of the British Isles" by Bernard Skinner. Available from Amazon for £35.00 (Click Here)

So I would encourage everyone to invest a little time and energy to grab, rather than a rolled up newspaper, an empty jamjar or something similar and catch the moth rather than batter it and have a closer look, you might find yourself pleasantly surprised!

Kim Gowney.

Continue to Moth and Butterfly records for Sutton Green.

For more information on Moths, visit Ian Kimbers excellent website UK Moths.