Search Help

The search box allows you to specify the species you'd like to search for. The entries you make here will remain for the duration of your web session, but will be cleared if you close down your browser or you don't use the website for several minutes.

Search For

You can select to search for either adult moths/butterflies or for larvae (caterpillars). The selection you make here controls the data that you can search for and also the records data and images which will display on the search results and species details pages. If you select 'adult', you can select the forewing/wingspan, the flying month and the food plant. If you select 'larva', you can select the type of larva, the colours, the month and the number of prolegs.

Include

This combo-box allows you to restrict the search results to butterflies, macro moths or micro moths. Changing this setting automatically changes the next field 'Family' so that the families shown are for the selection made here (ie. if you select 'macro moths' here, only macro moth families show in the Family combo-box).

Family

This combo-box allows you to restrict the search results to any of the species families or subfamilies. If you select a family (shown in bold {not Internet Explorer}), all subfamilies will be automatically included as well.

Name/BF/KR no.

Here you can enter either the common or latin name of the species you wish to find. The search routine will try to find the best match and will show all the matches found with the closest match shown first. For example, if you enter 'brown argus', the search will show all the species with the words 'brown' or 'argus', but the 'brown argus' species will be shown first as it is the closest match. If the search only finds one match for your selection, you'll be taken directly to the species detail page.

You can also enter the BF (Bradley & Fletcher, 2000) number here, but you must enter a complete four-digit number with leading zeros if necessary (ie. enter 0121 not 121).

You can also enter the KR (Karsholt & Razowski, 1996) number, but you must enter a complete five-digit number with leading zeros if necessary (ie. enter 00330 not 330).

Food Plant

Here you can enter the name of the larval food plant. Bear in mind that some species will be listed with generic food plants such as 'various trees' or 'herbaceous plants'.

** NEW ** You can also search using the latin name of the food plant.

UK Status

Here you can select the UK status, or conservation classification, of the species you want to include. The classifications are as per Waring, 1999b.

Presence

Here you can select the residency classification of the species you want to include.

Overwinters As

Here you can specify how the species you want to include overwinters.

Wingspan (Adult searches only)

Here you can enter a wingspan to further restrict your search results. You can enter a tolerance so, for example, you can include all moth species with a wingspan of 20mm /- 5mm.

Diurnal (Adult moth searches only)

Here you can specify the dayflying characteristics of the species you want to include.

Type (Larva searches only)

You can restrict the larva search results by selecting what general type or form of larva you want to see.

Colour(s) (Larva searches only)

You can restrict the larva search results by entering a list of colours. You can enter as many colours as you wish, separated by commas. The search routine will weight any results so if a particular colour in your list isn't listed on our database for a particular larva, but the other colours are, the species will still be listed.

No. of Proleg Pairs (Larva searches only)

You can restrict the larva search results by selecting the number of proleg pairs that a larva has. This includes the anal claspers (unless modified - so the Puss Moth for example has 4 proleg pairs as the claspers are modified into defensive structures). If the prolegs are vestigal or diminished, they are not included.

Month

For adult searches you can specify the month when adults are likely to be flying and for larva searches you can specify the month that larva are likely to be seen. The flight and larval time data on our system is a combination of reference data and data from the VC31 historical records. Some of the older historical records didn't give a sighting date and these records are not used in the selection process. Also, where adults or larva overwinter, the reference data reflects this and even though it may be extremely unlikely that a particular species will be seen in the depths of winter, you may get species on your search results you didn't expect.

Sort By

The search results can be listed in several different sequences. The default is 'Best for chosen search'. This will decide which sort sequence to use based on the selections made in the other search box fields described above. If you wish, you can force the search results to be sorted by:-

Based on Sightings (when Sort By is 'Most Common First')

When the 'Sort By' option is 'Most Common First', search results are sorted so that the species with the largest number of historical records appears first. Here you can select the range of years to include. The default is 'since records began' (ie. all records). You can also select:-