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Thanks Ian for identifying Silver Y so quickly. Can stop tearing hair out now. Best wishes.

Dear Ian, Mary and I hobbled from Seaton Hole to Beer yesterday and. on the way, spotted a beautiful butterfly we'd never seen before. We went back again today in the hope of seeing it again it - luckily, it (or a close friend) was still enjoying the same bush. We couldn't get a decent picture of it flying but it appeared to be orangey/brown patterned and about the size of a Red Admiral. When settled, however, it looked considerably smaller, was triangular in shape and had a tiny red head with white stripes radiating from the edges of its black wings towards the tail; it was orangey/beige underneath. We now think we must have been looking at a moth, but the markings don't correspond with your pictures of the Garden Tiger. We have recognisable photos from above and below - might I email them to you, please, for your help in identifying it? And if so, could you please let me have your e-address. Yours sincerely, Stephen and Mary

Hi Ian,
Many thanks for a splendid website. I am a recent convert to \"mothing\" and find the excellent photos a great help in identification. I live in Formby which, I understand, is a good location for moths and my wife & I moth trap with a 15W actinic in our garden. We have been delighted with the number of species up to now (almost 12 months). I send my records to Steve Palmer. I have found that Moths have added a new and fascinating dimension to retirement.
Thanks again - keep up the good work.
Best wishes, Trevor

Thanks for the great resource. Been on it for hours trying to identify a light brown moth with buff oblongs on wings and pale yellow chevron/tick shaped mark on upper wings, which are also edged with pale yellow/buff dogtooth marks. 4-6 specimens seen and photographed over past three days, midday, sunny to overcast, feeding on thistle-type plants, 250-300 mm wingspan. Close shot shows fantastic geometric armour markings on upper body. Rests closed wing with yellow chevron and dogtooth edging showing. I've looked at every brown moth on the site and while Pyrausta aurata or small yellow underwing look somewhat similar, it is quite different to the pictures shown.

I've been trying to email you but my server keeps bouncing the message back not recognising ukmoths.org.uk???. I would be happy to send on pictures on disk if you could e-mail address or could upload photo to Flicka?

What a fantastic site. I live in Brittany, France and your site has helped us identify a moth which was in our garden today.
We identified it as a Jersey Tiger. It matched the photo we took exactly.

I know where to come to next time.

Hi, Just found a six spot Burnet moth in a field near Dunblane. Don't know if it's unusual, but it's the first time I've ever found one in this area.

Dear Ian,

I have a photo of no.218 Nemapogon variatella if of interest for the site.

Best wishes

Matthew Gandy

Having now read the guestbook it seems very obvious that the Jersey Tiger moth has found a new habitat in South East London as over last three weeks there have been sightings in quite a wide area (East Dulwich, Crystal Palace, Honor Oak and Catford). Funny none spotted North, East or West London. What's special about South East?

Hi there, I live in the Highlands of Scotland, just north of Inverness. This morning I found a bright green caterpiller I had never seen before, I managed to identify it as a Privet Hawkmoth through this site.

Was a little puzzled though, what is a Privet Hawkmoth doing this far north, according to the information it's something based in the south. Maybe it got lost....;)

For your information, just spotted what I thought was a butterfly flitting past but when in landed on a bush I noticed it was a moth I'd never seen before. Looking it up on your excellent website I discovered it was a Jersey Tiger moth. Thought you might like to know as it was 10am and I'm in the depths of South London (SE19 1HF) not Central London.

My son and i came accross a very large caterpillar today in the middle of the footpath. It had very unusual markings and was bigger than anything else i had seen before. So even though i hate anything creepy crawly i didn't want to see it squashed as could of easily got trodden on. Also i also want my son to respect nature so out came my sandwich box and we managed to put it in a wooded area close by. It turns out it was a Puss moth caterpillar only not bright green but a dark brown colour. Am still not a fan but would save one again.

Many thanks for the web site. We took a picture of a lovely moth this afternoon and identified it as a Jersey Tiger using this site. We are near Bridgwater in Somerset so it would appear to be a little rare this far north. (Must be climate change).

I am hoping someone might be able to identify a caterpillar I saw on the wildflower meadow near my allotment last week. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me. It was black and very hairy and approx 2 inches long. The most striking thing was a vivid pink/cerise stripe running lengthways down the top of its \"back\". I have looked through all of the pictures on your excellent site(!) but haven't seen anything similar. Can anyone help me? Many thanks. Mrs P Frost

Over the past months I've used your site on various occasions to identify moths, today having seen a small moth which I must admit I didn't have a clue as to what it was, I was able to identify it as a 'Male Vapourer' unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to get my camera and capture an image before it flew off.

Best wishes

We have found a Jersey Tiger moth in Watchet, Somerset

Very helpful. I was trying to identify a moth a saw today in Penerley Road London SE6: I am now pretty sure that it was a Jersey Tiger. I have saved your site in my \"favourites\" for future reference. Sorry I didn't have my camera on me!
Looks like this confirms the sighting of your last guest!

Hi Ian,
Justfound your site - very useful for a novice moth chaser.
Have been seeing a Jersey Tiger moth here in Catford SE6 over the last few days. In the past have had poplar hawk moths (until the poplar at the bottom of next door garden went down in a storm). Have lime hawk moths in our lime trees. A couple of years ago found a huge deaths head hawk moth in the garden - only problem was that one of the cats got to it first!

Very pleased to be able to identify a Poplar Hawkmoth that I saw on the pavement last week in Norfolk. Thanks.

i have taken a picture of a butterfly from my garden think it is a red admirel but not sure orange black cream brown white blue yellow can anybody tell me its name please

I am new to moths but have a trap and so far have managed to identify 38 in my back garden in Southampton - which seems quite good although a mere drop in the ocean really!

You must have put an incredible amount of hard work into this site - very impressive, interesting and useful.

(Please let me know if you fancy identifying the ones I can't, even with a book in front of me and your website!)

Regards

Rob Sawyer

We just love moths- cant get enough of them.....but what, we ask, is the best way of catching them?

As a novice this is an extremely useful site and a great aid to identification.

Wonderful site.My first visit and already been able to identify some that I have photographed. Will be sure to visit again.

what a lovely site, I took some pics today of a
beautiful moth .It had been in our kitchen over night. It looks like a huge green leaf. how do I send it to you ,

Just seen my first \"Poplar Hawk Moth\" Thanks to your site I was able to identify it. Still incredible, although it is common to the British Isles. My siting was in Surrey.

Walking along the roads in East Dulwich, South East London I have noticed many Jersey Tiger Moths, I have seen at least 3 a day. I have lived in this part of London for ten years and have never seen these moths before. At first I thought they were Tiger moths but looked them up and discovered them to be Jersey Tiger Moths - very beautiful.

Hi there , i have just quickly logged onto your site on a friends pc to look for a moth which i saw 3 weeks ago on holiday at Slapton sands in devon(about 1/2 mile from slapton ley nature reserve).

The moth i saw had the colouring of a sherbert lemon with a wingspan of around 50-70mm, on each wing were 2 faint bars of dark colouring running around 45 degrees to the length of the wing.Having had a quick look at your beginners top 20 the only moth that comes close in to resemblement is the Swallow tailed moth.

However the moth that i saw did not have the swallow tail and it looked just like a mini stealth fighter in its geometry!!!

I have asked e few people that i know and one person did mention that he thought there could be a moth called the stealth, i have no idea if this is true but i did put yellow & stealth into your search engine but nothing came back.

Please would you be kind enough to let me know what it was that i saw as i would really like know as i have never ever seen a moth like it before , cheers all the best :-)

We found a very large moth and had no idea what it was. It seemed toooo big for a UK moth (It was in fact 65mm in length.)but using this website i was able to identify it as a Privet Hawk Moth. Thanks for your help.

Superb site. The whole subject matter is quite bewildering to the newcomer who wants to dip their toe into the world of moths. The quality of the images and various hints are all very helpful.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I've thoroughly enjoyed your web site especially the images of the earlier stages. I can therefore appreciate that with such a mammoth task at hand errors may creep in.

I'm working on the Sterrhinae subfamily and its biology in Spain so I trust that I am qualified to make the following comment: the image of Idaea humiliata which you give is not actually of this species, I'd say that it was I. fuscovenosa. This is the problem with this genus even in northern Europe, it's important to always prepare the genitalia, this specimen has not been treated as such as far as I can tell from the photo.

There are several species: I. bigladiata, I. humiliata, I. fuscovenosa and I. lutulentaria, as well as I. dilutaria, which although they can be distinguished without making preparations, if the specimen is fresh enough and/or there are reliable location data, it is always better to err on the side of caution and do a slide.

I'm familiar enough with I. humiliata to be able to verify it at a glance from Madrid material, and your specimen is definitely not this species. If you have Hausmann (2004) on the European fauna, you'll find all of the problematic species dealt with there.

Best wishes,

Gareth King

Universdad Autonoma de Madrid,
28069 Cantoblanco, Madrid, Spain.