National Moth Night

National Moth Night is changing and will return as Moth Night 2012 on 21-23 June 2012.

As you’ll be aware there is no National Moth Night in 2011. After 12 glorious years it was time to take stock and review. The organisers, Atropos and Butterfly Conservation, have been hard at work planning a sustainable future for the annual celebration of moths and moth recording. As a result, the event has evolved and will return next year as Moth Night 2012.

Moth Night 2012 will retain the familiar combination of moth recording by enthusiasts across Britain and Ireland with local events aimed at raising awareness of moths among the general public. As in the past, each year will have a theme (although recorders are always welcome to do their own thing) and the event will take place on different dates. However, in response to feedback from participants, future events will be confined to the warmest months and each event will last for three consecutive nights (Thursday-Saturday). Recording can take place on any one or more of these nights. We hope that these changes will greatly improve the chances of favourable weather for moth recording during the event.

The other major change is a move to full online recording. We will be working in association with the Biological Records Centre (at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology) to create a comprehensive but easy-to-use online recording system that will be the route for all future records. As well as vastly improving the efficiency of handling the many thousands of records received each year, this new system will give participants immediate feedback about the event.

The full findings will continue to be published in the journal Atropos (the results of National Moth Night 2010 will appear in the Autumn issue of Atropos) but, in the future, we will be providing better feedback to all those who take part in the event.

So the vital information:

Moth Night 2012 will take place on 21^st-23^rd June 2012. The theme will be the moths of brownfield habitats (such as old quarries, disused railway lines, reclaimed coal tips, gravel and clay workings etc.) and will include both daytime searches and the usual night-time recording. Further announcements will follow, but please make a note of the dates now.

Moth Night 2013 will take place on 8^th-10^th August 2013.

Moth Night 2014 will take place on 3^rd-5^th July 2014.