New online Worcestershire moth recorder information including up to date list of species and recording advice

Tony Simpson

tonysimpson.1945@hotmail.co.uk

The last published information on the Worcestershire (VC37) moths was by Harper and Simpson in the Atlas of the Larger Moths and the two Atlases on the Smaller Moths of Herefordshire & Worcestershire published by the West Midlands Branch of Butterfly Conservation in 2000 to 2003.

There have been a lot of changes since then in the numbers and status of moths in VC37 both because of the spread of new species to our area, the increases and decreases in frequency of a lot of species possibly related to climate change, and because of an enormous increase in recorders and recording effort over the last ten years. There was obviously a need to bring county moth recording up to date.

Nigel Stone has been keeping the database for the whole of the West Midlands but has now asked the counties to take back the responsibility for the management of their own records, as the huge number of recent records has made his work load increasingly onerous. A big vote of thanks is due to him for his sterling work and help which has been much appreciated. He will continue to keep a back-up database whilst we run and manage the county list and records.

I remain the county recorder for Worcestershire (Victoria County 37) but Oliver Wadsworth has kindly agreed to be the IT manager for the county records. Jeff Rush produced an on line moth list including information on status and flight times and based on this Oliver and myself have produced an up to date county list and notes for VC37 moth recorders which can be obtained from Oliver at oliver.wadsworth@sky.com Danny Arnold has kindly agreed to hosting up to date copies of the “recorders package” and an online version of the county list at http://www.temevalleywildlife.com/galleries/WorcestershireMothWebsite.htm.

Species are listed separately under Smaller (Micro) and Larger (Macro) moth lists with Bradley number, English names for the Larger Moths, scientific names and their status, usual flight times, and for rare species their first and last records and some details of their sites in the county. The species have been put into the following categories: Common/Fairly Common and Widespread which are accepted without need for other details; Uncommon/Localised for which a photo or specimen may needed unless previously recorded from that site or area; species which need dissection to be certain of their identification and should otherwise be recorded as an aggregate; Rare/First County Record/presumed Extinct for which a specimen or photo where appropriate is needed. We will keep the list of species and changes in status up to date and this will be available on line in a readable only format. Further information is in the Notes for Recorders. For those who contribute to the Garden Moth Scheme it should be noted that we no longer automatically receive these records and therefore it is important to send us all your records as these will otherwise not get into the county moth data.

Records can be emailed to oliver.wadsworth@sky.com , or to me at tonysimpson.1945@hotmail.co.uk, or by post if wished to “A.N.B. Simpson,The Sycamores, Old Rectory Gardens, Leigh, WR6 5LD, Tel. 01886 832637.