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British and Irish moths: an illustrated guide to selected difficult species
British and Irish moths: an illustrated guide to selected difficult species (covering the use of genitalia characters and other features).
Written by moth experts Martin Townsend, Jon Clifton and Brian Goodey, this guide brings together information on the identification of difficult macro-moths, beyond what is currently available in moth field guides.
The softback guide features 72 larger moth species (plus their subspecies and forms) with over 130 color illustrations. The ring-bound format and protective covers aid its use next to a microscope during dissections. Text and images of confusion species have been laid out together for ease of use and new keys have been designed to aid identification.
This Guide provides the next step for those wishing to make a definitive determinations of difficult moths such as ear moths, dark/grey daggers, copper underwings and the November Moth group. As such, much of the Guide is focussed on genitalia characteristics, although there are discussions of other characteristics such as wing markings. See an example page here.
It provides an up-to-date summary that will be of use even to those already experienced in genitalia determinations, but the main intended audience is those active moth recorders who are ready to take on the more challenging macro-moths and, thus, help improve the recorded distributions of these species.