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Picture, top right on your home page? What is it? Saw several on Flamborough Head today...Desperate to find out...Thank you if you can help. Robert...

I've just found an enormous moth on my gate - I've taken two pictures, one when it was on the gate with it's wings closed then another when it was on the ground with it's wings spread.

Wing span about 3\" and it's colouring matched the gate but with wings spread it has pink stripes on it's body

very happy to forward pictures: it gave me a fright - never seen one so big!

I found this moth in our conservatory, what is it?

very helpful images'

some species could do with more examples where there are big variations

but the site has confirmed several tricky species for me, thank you

Brilliant website. Thought we had a baby bat flying in the house the other night. When it finally settled we could see it was a moth. Thanks to your website we now know it wasn't something unusual (shame) as it is in your beginners top twenty. Turns out it was a privet Hawk-moth. I didn't realise moths could be that large!

I have a collection of 15 British moths. Look forward to my annual trip to Great Britain for new ones...

Yesterday I took a picture of what I thought was a butterfly. I now know it was a Jersey Tiger moth. Although somewhat ignorant of the differences yesterday, I have today become more knowledgeable after finding this useful site. Thanks. p.s. I live in South London and I read that there is a thriving population of this species in central London. I don't blame it for coming south 6 miles to a relatively 'quiet' spot for a few hours r & r.

Monday 6th July.Middlesbrough.Sitting in the gazebo on the patio at approx.12.30pm,we saw this beautiful moth,naturally we took photographs then I looked for it on your site,found out that it was a swallowtail,we feel really priveleged to have seen it as we are certainly not enthusiasts!13.39pm and its still there.

The other evening we had a swallow tail moth in our bathroom. Having read on your site that this moth is 'not often encountered by non-enthusiasts' I feel privalaged to have saved one as we put it back out the bathroom window, after I had taken a couple of pictures of this unusual moth. It would also seem, from reading on your page, that this moth was a little early.
Lyn

Hi Ian,
Great site, amazing for a beginner that there are so many moths. I have seen a number of the ones in your Top 20 in our garden.
Recently I spotted one I cannot find anywhere. I wanted to email you a photo to use on your site if you can identify it, but your contact me link doesn't seem to work?

Keep up the good work!! Get some big sponsors and make this your full time job?
Kind regards,
Gary

great site when trying to find out what the large moth was in the garden...privet-hawk...a first for us in Peterborough.

what a brilliant site, my sons found a moth in the garden(as usual for them) and got a little bit excited about it because it was huge by moths standards, so i took some photos on my phone found your site and straight away identified what it was, a superb looking privet moth, we get alot of moths because we live near a huge field and a large woods and all night long we have a night light on by our front door so it gets a bit scary when you open the door of a night time or so my wife says, she hates them, i have tried to explain to her they wont hurt you but she thinks that big ones bite, many thanks paul.

Beautiful Swallowtail on front door of our urban house this evening. Never seen one so well displayed before. Unfortunately the flash kept bouncing off the glass but one download may prove to be ok

I've taken photos of many species of moth - mainly visitors to my house. Some I'm unable to find in my reference book 'Complete british Insects' pub. by Collins. In many cases it may be that the wing position in my photos doesn't match the ones in the guide book. In particular, there's a common visitor which looks like some kind of snout, but always rests with folded wings, and doesn't look remotely like any of photos I've seen. If I send photos, can you help me to identify them?

Thanks

Tim New

WE FOUND THIS

1979 Lime Hawk-moth Mimas tiliae

IN EASTLEIGH, HAMPSHIRE TODAY

VERY ACTIVE, PRESUMABLY 'WANDERING' AND READY TO PUPATE

TOOK MOBILE PHONE PIC BUT IT WAS TO POOR TO ADD

VERY EXCITING FIND

Hi, useful site! having found out what moth my constant house guest is (a swallow tailed) i now know why despite having freed it on several occasions, why it keeps returning, we are pretty sure its the same one! I think it's becoming tame it spends so much time with us! according to your site they like ivy which i happen to have in abundance outside the front of my house. My baby finds our new pet fascinating, i'd like to ask is it ok free him during the day, as i wait for night at the moment....Thanks

I was with my husband in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, on Saturday 27th June 2009 when he saw what resembled a tiny bat on the bottom of a shop (steel) door. Another man was interested and had placed a small toy in front of it for size comparison before photograhing it with his mobile phone. Well, this moth was massive - I certainly wouldn't want it flying around my bedroom! On peering closely I can only describe it as having dried autumn leaves for wings - one even twitched as though moving in the wind - and it had a huge dark-brown body, with antennae looking like two short sticks, like a thin yellow number 11. It had very thin pale-yellowy white legs. I have looked on your site and it appears to be the Poplar Hawk-moth, although the wings depicted in your picture look lighter and don't look much like dried autumn leaves! I don't recall the head being as big as on your picture and the antennae also look thicker on your picture whereas on 'our' moth they were very short and thin and more yellowy in colour. Thank you very much for the use of your website, what a find!

Last September (2008) I found a Blue Underwing (Clifden Nonpareil), perfectly camouflaged against the limestone of my house, resting about twenty feet above the ground. I live ten miles south of Bath, by the way, in the north-east corner of Somerset. I thought it was one of these even before it obligingly flew away, revealing its blue underwings. I was excited, as I have never found one before, but nobody else on the internet seemed the slightest bit interested.

However if anyone is out there who counts these things, I thought you'd like to know.

My mum and I were sat outside in my garden today and on the parasol we spotted a funny looking creature. On closer inspection we saw what could only be described as a 'dalmation moth', white wings with black spots, a white furry body with black spots and a black and white stripey body. It was so unusual and we didnt know what it was so we phoned the environmental health department at our council and they wanted to see it to try and identify it. They phoned me back later and said it was a White Ermine Moth which apparently are very common in England, which we were very surprised at because none of us had ever seen one before or even seen pictures of one! The man who I spoke to said that it had caused quite a stir at the office because no-one else there had seen one either! It was so interesting to see it and we watched it for ages-it was a fascinating insect and it really made our day (and everyones at the e.h.d!) to see it!!

wicked. very edducetional!!!

I found this very useful site after I found what I thought was an unusual moth in Shrewsbury. After a few minutes it was established that it was a Leopard Moth, normally found in the South of England. Whether it is normal to find one in the W. of the West Midlands I have no idea.

I didn't know how beautiful british moths are until i found a privet hawk-moth and a elephant hawk-moth in my back garden within a week.

Hi,

This past few days I've been seeing loads of a kind of moth I've never seen. The closest I could find with the keyword search is the cream-spot tiger, though the ones I'm seeing have vivid red underwings, and their other wings have many more, much smaller white spots than in the picture of the cream-spot tiger. Any idea what is is?

Cheers,
Gary

Fantastic, sent my primary class out looking for interesting mini-beasts and a very excited 6 year old found a elephand hawkmoth although I didn't have a clue that thats what it was at the time. It seemed very sleepy on its leaf and after removing it from the sunshine and bringing it home to photograph it, as soon as night fell it took flight. Thanks for the info will report back to my little ones tomorrow.

Linda

Hoghton Preston Lancs.

P.S Got lots of piccies if your interested.

I have just discovered this site (30th june 2009) and have found it extremely useful in identifying three kinds of moth which I have seen for the first time in my life in the last two weeks! (I am 55!) these are the Magpie, seen in the University Halls of Residence where I work, in Birmingham; and the Swallowtail moth and Common Emerald, seen this week in my house in Northfield, Birmingham. Thank you for a very interesting, easy to use, and informative site!

hi,my name is kelly when i was walking along the river bank in stretham near ely and wicken fen about 8pm i came across two moths. both about 2 inches long light grey with crack like shapes in the wings(i presume to mingle into bark if on a tree) there was also a cream/yellow line behind the head then behind this was a a single circle like an eye with markings in it.there were no other of these eye markings on the wings or anywhere else.
please could you tell me if it was a type of hawk moth? i cant see it on your site.
thankyou very much
kelly

As someone who has loved looking at moths (and most other wildlife!)since childhood, a website such as this is fantasic. It's what the internet is all about!
I came back to this site today because yesterday I found a lime hawk moth which had coupled itself onto the anther of a lilium regale flower as if to mate with it! I had to cut the anther off the flower and leave the moth to rest during the day. At dusk it flew off, seemingly none the worse. If you want me to email a photo please just ask.

i briliant site i spend a lot of time checking out moths in the garden. i have books but they don't show them all so your site has been really usfull

Hi. What a great website this is. Living in rural Sussex we often find moths and always use this excellent site to ID the moths we find.

On Sunday 28th our three daughters came running in saying there was something \"really really weird\" on the wooden climbing frame in a kids playpark. Sure enough there was ...... it was obviously two Puss moths mating and a close up pic was taken. By way of thanks to Ian Kimber, who runs this site, we've sent him the pic to use. Great to see a simple to use and regularly updated web site. Many thanks.

Hi. I found a moth nestling in a flowerhead in one of my hanging baskets the other evening. I photographed it as it had a white u shaped spot on each wing. From your site photos, it would appear to be a Dot Moth which according to your description is very rare in Scotland apart from the very south of the country and then only scarcely found. I stay in Central Scotland almost midway between Glasgow and Edinburgh so if I am right with the identification, it would appear that the Dot Moth may be migrating northwards!!! Will forward photograph if it is of interest.