How to use this website

The idea of this website is to first navigate to a species of interest. This can be done in a variety of ways, as outlined below.

1) Click on the first letter of the scientific name of the species you are interested in. Then select the species from the list box. (You may have to scroll down).

2) Click on the column header: English Name. The list box changes to show English names starting with whatever letter is currently selected. Click on the first letter of the English name of the species you want to find and then select the species.

3) If you know the family to which the species belongs you can select the family from the dropdown list. Then select your species.

4) Enter all or part of a species name into the search box and press the search button. Any species with a vernacular or scientific name containing the search phrase appears in the grid. E.g. try the word "pug" (without quotes) and all pugs will be listed. Or "frit" to get fritillaries. Etc.

5) You can limit the available choices to butterflies only, macro-moths only, micro-moths only, migrants only or leaf-miners only. Doing this may make it easier to find the species you are looking for.

6) By selecting a larval foodplant from the dropdown box the choice is limited to only those species utilising the chosen plant. This can be of some help but please remember that this aspect of the database is certainly not comprehensive and may not be accurate.

7) There are various other options including sorting by the ABH code. This sorts the list box taxonomically. If a species has already been selected then sorting taxonomically will allow comparison with closely related species.

Once a species is selected relevant information is shown including a thumbnail photograph - if available - a basic hectad map (with blue circles for pre-2000 records) and flight chart plus any comments. One or more photographs may become available - almost all taken locally. The actual records can be viewed directly in tabular form or they can also be plotted at the monad, tetrad or hectad level. More recent records can be shown in a different colour with the cut-off year chosen by the user. Clicking on any dot on the map brings up the underlying records. A flight chart is included on the map and clicking on a week of the chart will bring up up the records from that week only. The Google Maps option is good for a detailed look at where a species has been seen as the zoom control allows a close look at any site especially when the satellite view is chosen. A direct link is available to the UK Moths page for the selected species and for this reason the general information on a species is not repeated here. Similarly, direct links are given to two leaf-mining websites where appropriate. A direct link is given to the new dissection website and other more generally useful links are also given, on the 'Links' page but these just take one to the home page of the websites. (The direct links may not always work if, for example, a taxon name is spelt differently).

Other options, not associated with any specific species, are available via the top menu bar. These include the generation of a species density map and the ability to generate lists for a particular site and/or for a particular grid square. With a bit of effort a list can be generated for anywhere in North Wales though this is not an entirely straight-forward process for fairly obvious reasons.

October 2020. A new version of the website has been developed and uploaded. The functionality is much the same but now once a species is selected it will remain selected when the sort order is changed. The benefit is that by sorting taxonomically ABH the selected species lies alongside it's closest relatives and the user can step through these directly.