Moths
Yorkshire's Moths
Our region supports a wide range of moth species. Many are common, some are at great risk due to habitat loss and others are seriously threatened with extinction in our region due to their very limited distribution in the county. Some species have not been seen for many years and their current status in the area is unknown.
Without the work of many dedicated volunteer moth recorders, much of the information we currently know would not exist. The branch is lucky to have many moth recorders who run public and private moth trapping nights across the region, the keenest of which are willing to travel far and wide at their own expense and stay up throughout the night before recording their moth catch as the sun rises. We also have many members who regularly moth trap in their own gardens, for many a weekly activity with records spanning many years. Lots more about nocturnal moths here: https://yorkshiremoths.co.uk/
Yorkshire's Day-flying Moths
Several of our butterfly recorders submitted their observations of day-flying moths as an additional comment as part of their butterfly sightings data when this data was submitted online via this website prior to 2019. With the launch of the new website, we have selected 87 day-flying moth species that you are most likely to encounter in our region allowing you to submit your sightings data for these species in the same way you would submit your butterfly sightings.
More Details of our Yorkshire species here
A female emperor moth; one of Yorkshire's most attractive day-flying moth species
Yorkshire's Clearwing Moths
Clearwing moths are extremely elusive. Despite being day-flyers, there are rarely seen without the use of artificial pheromone lures which attract the males. With more people using artificial pheromones to locate clearwing moths, we now have an opportunity to start to map their true distribution in our region but until now, it has not been easy for casual observers to submit their observations of these elusive yet fascinating day-flying moths.
More details here
Six-belted clearwing moth attracted to a synthetic pheromone lure