North Wales Lepidoptera Database

This online database contains all available* butterfly and moth records from the six vice-counties of North Wales: Montgomeryshire (VC47), Merionethshire (VC48), Caernarvonshire (VC49), Denbighshire (VC50), Flintshire (VC51) and Anglesey (VC52). (To see a map of the vice-counties click on the menu option above). The table below summarises the current number of records from each vice-county along with the number of species recorded.  Note that these numbers are recalculated whenever this page is loaded - hence the slight delay in loading the page.

Only records where the moth or butterfly was identified to the species level are included here, i.e. records assigned to aggregate categories are ignored.

	North Wales totals	VC47	VC48	VC49	VC50	VC51	VC52
No. of micro-moths recorded	1016	684	754	828	785	635	664
No. of macro-moths recorded	637	549	575	552	559	486	514
No. of butterflies recorded	50	44	46	46	39	38	37
Total no. of spp recorded	1703	1277	1375	1426	1383	1159	1215
Total no. of records	1,396,393	397,752	220,518	337,723	96,619	113,539	230,225

Database accessed: 11/15/2025 12:40:08 AM

 

A pivot table showing the number of records for each taxon by vice-county can be generated here: .

The information displayed in this website is generated dynamically whenever a request is made. Thus there are no distribution maps stored on the server so when a map is requested a complex series of actions occur to prepare the map and then send it to your browser. The advantage of this approach is flexibilty - nothing has to be prepared in advance. The disadvantage is that the whole website runs more slowly than many others which are much simpler and merely consist of a series of linked pre-prepared pages. Speed is a particular issue when dealing with very common species for which there are a large number of records. E.g. the map for Meadow Brown will take longer to generate than for some rarity with only one or two records.

Note that, in common with many other websites, this one requires your browser to be 'javascript enabled' and to 'accept cookies'. The latter functionality is needed simply to store temporary variables used in the behind-the-scenes processing. These are deleted at the end of your session.



  Recorders    New County Records by year     

Nomenclature

This website follows the nomenclature used in: Agassiz, D.J.L., Beavan, S.D. & Heckford, R.J.. 2013. A checklist of the Lepidoptera of the British Isles.

The English names used for micro-moths are taken from: The Field Guide to the Micro-moths of Great Britain and Ireland Sterling and Parsons. (These newly invented names replace those suggested by Jim Porter which were used previously). However, most people use the scientific names for micro-lepidoptera as the English names are unfamiliar and a cause of confusion.

The Welsh names for macro-moths are from a spreadsheet prepared by Duncan Brown.

The micro-moth UK status categories are taken from: A Review of the Status of Microlepidoptera in Britain, Butterfly Conservation Report No. S12-02, Tony Davis, January 2012.

Macro-moth UK status categories are from an earlier (2004) table also prepared by Tony Davis.



Acknowledgements

Many thanks to everyone who has helped make this website possible both by supplying datasets and by commenting on layout and functionality. I am particularly grateful to those of my fellow Vice-County Recorders who have been generous in supplying their county datasets and providing annual updates, to BIS (Biological Information Services) for allowing the use of their moth and butterfly records from Montgomeryshire and to Cofnod for close co-operation over the Lepidoptera records from Merionethshire.

*  Not all records from recent years have yet been collated. Also, not all of the county datasets have been made available for use on this website.