Embedded Files
Moth records are collated by the county moth recorder, Martin Harvey, with help from John Thacker. Records can be sent in various ways, as described below. For details of how the records are used see our records position statement. See also our page about record verification.
For more information Martin can be contacted via our contact page.
Preferred options if possible: via iRecord or NMRS Online
The quickest and most efficient way to send in your records is to add them to the iRecord online recording system, or to the National Moth Recording Scheme Online system (which links to iRecord). iRecord is free to use, but you will need to register with the site to start entering records. A full user guide is available, and you can see how the records are progressing by joining one of our iRecord activity pages, which show all the Berks moths records on the system.
The best option for entering records is to use the specific moth recording form, which can be found under the "Record" menu – go to "Species group forms" and find "Moths". That will allow you to add all your moth records. If you also record other types of insect in your moth-trap you won't be able to add those, and in that case you may find it easier to use the standard "Record – Enter a list of records" form.
Please do say whether your record is of an adult moth, or if it is a caterpillar or other stage mark it as that. If you have a kept a specimen add that to the comments. If you have a photo it can be attached to the record on iRecord (this is really helpful for anything unusual or rare, but you don't need to add a photo for common species that you are confident of identifying).
You can also add records to iRecord via the iRecord app (Android and Apple) - the app has a "moth survey" option.
As soon as you add your records to iRecord, they are visible to the county moth verifiers (Martin Harvey and John Thacker) who will check through them and contact you if there are any queries (please note that you won't always get an immediate response, especially during the busy summer season, but your records are stored sfely and will be checked in due course).
Via spreadsheets
Records on a spreadsheet (such as Microsoft Excel, or the free Open Office Calc) are fine. I prefer one record per spreadsheet row, and please include details of whether your record is of an adult or early stage, and whether you have kept a specimen. It's also possible to upload records from spreadsheets into iRecord, If you have any questions about this please contact Martin.
Via MapMate
If you use the MapMate database I can accept spreadsheet exports (please contact Martin first) or sync files. To send a sync file, set your filters to:
Records - My Records
Sites - VC22
Taxa - Lepidoptera: Moths
and generate a sync file for Centre Unique Key “1pm”.
Via other databases
There are other good biological recording databases available, such as Recorder 6 and Gilbert 21, both of which can produce spreadsheet exports that are fine for the county moths. Please do include the unique record IDs from the originating database if sending in data from these systems.
Via email
For one-off records or occasional sightings then you can just send an email (although if you do start recording on a regular basis one of the above methods is preferable).
On paper
Paper records are not forbidden! I have to say that they’re not my favourite thing, simply because they take more time to process, but where no other option is available paper records are of course welcome.
Help with identification from photos
There are various good systems for uploading photos and getting help with identification: the Upper Thames Moths blog and Berkshire Moth Group Facebook page are excellent resources, and iSpot usually provides a quick response.
Back to the Recording moths page.
iNaturalist
iNaturalistUK is another online system. It is not our preferred route for records, because the records don't link in so well to our systems and we are not able to provide feedback in the same way we can on iRecord. Also, for records to be passed on to us they have to have a photo, whereas iRecord can accept records with or without photos. However, we are aware that iNaturalist is growing in popularity and has many good features. If you do add records via that route they will be automatically shared with iRecord (once the record reaches 'research grade' on iNaturalist). So your record will get to the scheme, but it will take longer and we cannot provide direct feedback.
If you do use iNaturalist, you can help us by following these guidelines where possible:
Choose an open licence for your records: CC0 or CC BY will enable your records to be used as widely as possible; CC BY-NC (non-commercial) can prevent records being used by some schemes and records centres. Other licence choices (such as SA and ND) are difficult to interpret for individual records, and cannot be used in iRecord or the NBN Atlas (nor on GBIF).
Provide your real name if possible; this can be added as the “Display name” in your iNaturalist profile, and will then be used as the recorder name on iRecord
Avoid obscuring locations unless absolutely necessary, as this can prevent them being linked to grid references of suitable precision for recording scheme use
Now that the record import is in place, it is helpful if you can avoid adding the same record to both iNaturalist and iRecord, to avoid duplication of both records and of verifiers’ time.
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