The main families of larger moths include:
 | The Swift Moths of which the Ghost moth is one of the most impressive examples. The male Ghost moths flutter at dusk just above the vegetation in grassy places and look like little ghosts. |
| The Leopards and Goats. The adults of this group cannot feed. The larvae of the Leopard Moth feed on wood and take several years to develop to the pupa stage. |  |
 | The Foresters and Burnets are day-flying moths. The Six-spot Burnet is common on downland in summer. You can often find their empty papery cocoons on grass stems in June after the adult moths have emerged. |
| The Limacodidae (named after Limax, the Latin for slug, as their larvae are very sluglike). The family has about 1000 members worldwide but only two small moths in the UK. One is the Festoon. |  |
 | The Clearwings look more like wasps and bees than moths. The Lunar Hornet Moth is a scarce species whose larvae tunnel in the trunks of willow trees. This is an amazing example of mimicry - birds avoid these moths because they think they are wasps! |
The Eggar Moths have large hairy caterpillars. A common species in the UK is the Oak Eggar, a large moth often seen in summer flying at break-speed in a rather haphazard way.
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The Emperors are a family of large dramatic moths. The Emperor is the only species in the UK .
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| The Endromidae is a family with only one member in the UK, the very rare Kentish Glory (not found in Kent!) |  |
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The Hook-tips This family includes the Pebble Hook-tip and the little Chinese Character Moth which camouflages itself as a bird dropping.
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The Lutestrings are a small family related to the Hook-tips. The Peach Blossom is a particularly pretty moth, and the Frosted Green is beautifully camouflaged against lichen covered trees.
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 | The Geometers have larvae which are 'loopers' - sometimes called 'inch-worms' - they measure the ground as they crawl, ( Geometer in Greek = earth measurer )They usually sit with their wings open like a butterfly. |
The Large Emerald and the Swallowtailed Moth are particularly notable Geometers.
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 | There are many members of the Carpet group with highly patterned, very camouflaged colouration - the Green Carpet is a common one. |
| The Thorn moths are a very attractive group of Geometers; they tend to sit with their wings raised above their backs like some butterflies. The Purple Thorn is one of the first to appear in the spring. |  |
 | The Hawk-moths are among the most dramatic of all moth groups, very large, very strong fliers and many of them very colourful. The Lime Hawk-moth is beautifully camouflaged. |
The Elephant Hawk-moth is one of the commonest - its caterpillars feed on Willowherb and Fuchsia shrubs.
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The Prominents have a range of very strange shapes like the Lobster Moth and the Puss Moth.
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Look at their caterpillars - they are even stranger! Lobster Moth larva left, Puss Moth larva right. Can you tell which is the head end?
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The Processionary Moths are so-called because the caterpillars move out from the protective webs they spin themselves and walk in long lines to find more food (see the lower image). They are only immigrants to the UK but can cause major damage to trees in Europe - for example the Pine Processionary Moth
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The Tussock Moths contain some very hairy moths including the common Pale Tussock Moth.
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The Tiger Moths contain a range of brightly coloured moths many which are distasteful to predators. The Garden Tiger is very dramatic and has caterpillars that are nicknamed 'woolly bears'.
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The Noctuids are the largest family of UK macromoths
With over 400 species. Many of them are various shades of brown (Heart and Dart and Dark Swordgrass) but many of them are very boldly coloured - e.g. the Burnished Brass , the Pink-barred Sallow, the Green Silver-lines and the Dark Crimson Underwing. One of the largest is the magnificent and rare Clifden Nonpareil, one of the smallest is the Cream-bordered Green Pea.
Scroll through the gallery to explore the range of colour and size among the UK Noctuid moths. Click on the first image to enlarge it and scroll through the photos by hovering the mouse over each image and clicking on the 'next' button that will appear on the right hand side of it.
