HAVE A GO AT MOTH TRAPPING!

Moth trapping in your school grounds or local green area can be incredibly productive - you may well be able to find 100 moth species of many shapes and sizes. It does not need a great deal of organisation and the results can make a very useful contribution to your knowledge of the biodiversity of your locality.

The variety and number of moths that you might find in your light trap will depend on the time of year and the weather, and of course on the richness of the habitat that you are trapping in. Below you will find links to selections of moth species that you might catch associated with different months of the year.

You are likely to catch the highest number of moth species on a warm, 'muggy', misty night in the summer. In the spring and the autumn/winter, the number of species flying is far smaller but if the weather forecast is for a mild, dry night, it is certainly worth having a go. You will catch far more moths if you leave the moth trap out all night and go back to it in the morning, but an evening session, up until, say, 11pm, can be very productive. Invite your friends round and have a barbecue!

If you don't own a light trap for catching moths, you could contact a member of the local moth group in your area and ask if you might borrow one.

Another way to attract moths is with a white sheet stretched out in front of a bright light bulb (e.g. 125 watts) but make sure you do this safely.

If you want to buy or make your own moth trap, go to the Anglian Lepidopterists' website.

Click here for a list of the commoner British Moths which you could use as the basis of your recording sheet. The number with each moth name is its classification number. If you rearrange the table so that it is numerical order, related species will be grouped together.

What to do with the moth records once you have collected them

The County Moth Recorder in your area will be very pleased to receive your moth records - these will be sent on to the National Moth Recording Scheme (NMRS) database and will become part of a growing bank of data which will help organisations like Butterfly Conservation protect moths and their habitats.

Click here for the list of contact email addresses for the County Moth Recorders.

Results of Moth trapping using two identical light traps in the village of Cerne Abbas in mid-Dorset on July 15^th 2006.

Click here to see the Excel table of results and print out a copy.

Trap One: Barton Meadows Farm. The trap was beside the stream flowing through an organic farm with cattle sheep and pigs, marshy land, a pond, river’s edge, woodland, hedges and close to the chalk hills above the village of Cerne Abbas.

Trap Two: Cerne Abbas Village School. The trap was in the small conservation area of the village school with shrubs, trees, a small pond, mature gardens on two sides, the street with a stream flowing beside it on another side and a grass pasture with an old hedge round it, on the fourth side.

What can we learn from the results?

Look at the two columns of results with the numbers of moths of each species caught in the two traps.

1.  Add up the total number of moths of each species caught in the 2 traps (the right hand most column ,column g)

2.  Add up the total numbers of moths caught in the 2 traps (second row from the bottom, row 280)

3.  Add up the number of different species in each trap (bottom row, row 281), and then the total number of species caught altogether in the two traps (write this total in square 281g.

Question 1     Which three species of moths were commonest at Trap 1, from Barton Meadows Farm?

Question 2      Which three species were most common in Trap 2, from the village school?

Question 3      Which species were caught in trap 1 but not in trap 2?

Question 4      Which species were caught in trap 2 but not in trap 1?

Question 5      The habitats round the village are very important to moths. Which moth habitats are there within ‘moth reach’ of the two places? Print out this habitat table (click here then press print) and fill it in by ticking the habitat boxes for the two sites.

Question 6      It was a warm night when we did the trapping – what difference do you think it would have made if the night had been cold and starry? Would we have caught more or fewer moths if the moon had been bright?

Question 7      How does a moth trap work? Can you explain? What did we do to the moths afterwards? And why did we do it?

Research        Choose 9 different moths, from different families listed here, and look up in a book or on the UKMoths website the details of which plants their caterpillars feed on.

Conclusion      Can you explain why Barton Meadows Farm had a larger number of species of moths than the conservation area of the village school?

Common Moths of the early part of the year

Below is a gallery showing some of the commoner species that you are likely to find in your light trap between February and April. Click on the first image then scroll through the pictures by clicking on the 'next' button.

Dotted Border.

Clouded Drab.

Early Moth.

March Moth.

Oak Beauty.

Early Thorn.

Early Grey.

Common Quaker.

The Satellite moth.

Hebrew Character.