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Great website and the top twenty moths ID is a great idea it helped me and my sons identify an angle shades we found. Many thanks!

Hi,

I realise you don't provide your web site to help get rid of moths (I'm sure the exact opposite) but I have a major problem with what I assume to be clothes moths and how to get rid of them. Several years ago I found a moth killer product that when hung up worked almost immediately but then after a while after the product had run out the moths came back again, so I bought the product again and again. This worked well until the product was withdrawn due to it being found to be a carcinogenic! Since then I haven't found another product that has worked.

If the problem is a regular clothes moth infestation, the usual treatments (wash clothes etc) don't seem to work.

I eventually moved home (not due to the moths!) and for several years haven't had a problem but recently the moths (which appear to be the same species from memory) seem to be returning. If I send you a photo of one of the moths would you be able to help, at least with an identification?

BTW apart from this particular species, I am a great fan of moths!

Thanks

Bob

Brilliant site. It helps me tremendously with my identifications. Am I right in thinking you are fairly local to me. I am in South Lakeland. Please keep up the good work. All the best, bryan

Just found your brilliant resource. For a non-specialist the keywording is great and enabled me to ID the numerous moths that have been appearing over the past three weeks in my home office towards dusk. The Brown House-moth 647 fits the bill exactly.

First time I have used the site and it helped me confirm my own findings.But I would like to know why there is only an iphone app as like the majority of smart phone users I am on android

Yesterday's glorious spring weather motivated me to put on my actinic moth trap all last night. This morning in and around the trap I identified several moths of each of the following species: Hebrew Character, Small Quaker, Clouded Drab, Dark Chestnut and a sole Dotted Border.

I also had three moths I wasn't sure about. I would have found it helpful to be able to look at a key showing all the commoner moths flying in late February/early March. Can anyone suggest where I might find such information without ploughing through my entire moth book?

Dear colleagues,

I am here by chance (as a hydrobiologist I checked some info for water larvae) but I can't leave these very interesting pages. I am delighted with your site! Many thanks for your excellent job! LN

Hello,

I have enjoyed looking through UK moths website on my lunchbreak. I haven't found the very large moth I was looking for yet so I'm looking forward to when your id-keys are available (I nearly started making a moth key on the web as a student about 17 years ago!) I only saw the moth I wanted to identify with its wings closed. It was about two and a half inches and very dark brown/black. I almost mistook it for a leaf except that it was hanging upside down on a stair gate.

Any ideas?

Best wishes

Beth

Thank you so much for all the hard work that has been put into this website!
I've been using this website religiously alongside Chris Manley's British moths and butterflies book in an attempt to identify the moths caught in my back garden for my third year dissertation project!
It has been so much help!

So thank you, and thank you to all the contributions from the photographers! Hopefully I can return the favour one day.

Best wishes,
Matt Payne

A most interesting site to browse as well as enabling me to identify moths i have taken photos of.

Saw a beautiful small orange moth with darker orange edge markings. Cannot identify it on this site. Have a picture.

I found this site by trawling the internet because I wanted to identify the moth I found last night. I identified the Gold Spot immediately from your excellent photos and I have sent my sighting to Graham Jones (Lancashire Macro Moths).

A really enjoyable and user friendly site.
Thank you Ian for establishing it.

Just out of interest, I would like to create a wildlife haven for the benefits of lepidoptery, wilder native flowers and ecology; about an acre. This would entail increasing the bio-diversity of food and nectar plants. My aim would also be to be a steward and live on site, in a small low-impact dwelling. I have funds to buy a plot of land, and would wish the site to become an educational resource centre in time. UK and EU are supporting financially bio-diversity initiatives and my local wildlife trust is fully behind me in this. Just one problem; I have been unable to find anywhere...! Brown or greenfield.
Any suggestions ?

Thanks
Darrell.

P.s.
I co-founded Moseley Bog N.R.in Birmingham, and recorded there during the eighties and nineties, compiling an extraordinary urban listing, which was submitted to the ECO-Data Base here. Nobody was recording back then from the area, so my information has been very useful.
Sadly, about 70% of the species I recorded then have now disappeared from the area. Hence my interest in creating a haven.

Thank you, for at very fine net-site

I have a comment

At Melanchra persicariae - the green larva-illustration is not
a Melanchra persicariae - but instead it is an

Abrostola tripartita

Many regards from Kjeld

Many decades ago my mother pointed out a Moth underneath a bush, It was silky grey with no other markings & was about 3inches wide and high with a rather small body length compared to its wing-size; If that wasnt amazing enough its head seemed to resemble the 'Statue of Liberty' (its head had either horns or its legs were nestled up by its head); But the most striking thing was its long wings swept downwards (well passed its short body)and then curled inwards to create a complete fantastic symetrical shape. Any ideas would be much appreciated as ive NEVER-EVER SEEN ANYTHING SO GLORIOUS SINCE, PS- I DID DRAW IT & STILL DO HAVE THE PICTURE SHOULD YOU BE INTERESTED, Many Thanks PAUL.

A wonderful sight with a very easy-to-use search function that has helped me identify a number of moths lately (just today I used it to make the acquaintance of the garden carpet and brimstone moths, representatives of both species having appeared in my bedroom!)

Monday 26 August 2013, Shooters Hill South East London, a Jersey Tiger Moth landed and rested for a while on my Elderberry bush. I didn't know at the time what sort of moth it was and stupidly didn't get a picture of it. It was a thrilling sight as it's so striking.

An amazing site and very helpful in the identifiation of a moth I'd never seen before. Turns out to be common, but yesterday (02/09/2013) the first time in my 62 years I'd seen a Canary Shouldered Thorn. What an amazing moth. And this site has piqued my interest, so I'll be looking out for more interesting moths in future

What a brilliant site!
Can I post a pic. of a moth on FB that I am trying to identify?

Thanks David

An excellent site and a friendly, helpful and informative Facebook account too. Thank you.

Jersey tiger moth spotted in Slade Green, South east London

I am in awe at the scope, the breadth and the realization of your website.
Congratulations to all involved. The photos are inspiring.
I live now in central France where the hummingbird hawk moth is a frequent visitor to our garden.
One particular specimen was rather darker and had a distinct red spot on the thorax on its back between the wings. Is this a species difference or just a few scales(?) rubbing off as it gathers nectar? I can't find any pictures on the net of a similar \"aberration\" No rush for a reply. Still lots on the wing to admire here

Hi there Ian
Can't find a way of sending you a photo as attachment. I took a shot here of what I think (thought?) was a Dark Crimson Underwing Moth, until I read that they only breed in the New Forest! I'm in Bedfordshire. Can you help with ID? You can see photo at:-
panoramio.com/user/6524903
...or please advise how I can send photo.

Sincere thanks

Jim Anthony

Great site.

I have seen a moth similiar to Brimstone moth but wings are very much straighter at the ends, with rust redline along the straight edges.caterpillars eaten all my lilys I believe.Cannot find any exact match in your examples.
Huge amount of butterrflies this year compared to last.
xheather

Took a photgraph of a large moth I have never seem before,have tried to match it in your thumnails, to no avail. How can I upload to you?

Thanks so much for this fabulous repository of moth info. I've just found what looks like a Maple Spanworm Moth but they're not supposed to be in Europe! Any ideas of what I may have mistaken it for? Many thanks and happy moth hunting.

Simply want to say how useful this guide is for an amateur like me. Ants are my speciality but Lepidoptera are so lovely and, by comparison, a lot easier to identify!

Just had a huge hawk moth come in our window. Safely dispatched back outside in a large jug.

We have seen 2 very tiny (1 cm with wings extended) moths or butterflies on lemon balm. Black or very dark brown with 2 orange spots at the base of each lower wing resting like a butterfly with the wings forming a straight line at the head and meeting at the base of the body to form a triangle. I can't find a description to identify the species anywhere. Can you help?