Raising moth awareness

Next month will see the first major event in a new four-year project which promises to be the world's largest effort to monitor and promote awareness of moth populations. Moths Count (www.mothscount. org), launched this spring by wildlife television presenter David Attenborough is Britain's attempt to address the apparent decline in many of its numerous moth species. The launch attracted considerable media attention. Three television news crews attended the launch and the event was covered by BBC radio and several newspapers. Moths make up a significant part of species used in biodiversity measures. In Britain there are more moth species than birds, mammals, butterflies and dragonflies put together. Moths, like butterflies, can act as indicators for the vast wealth of insect wildlife but, because of their much greater variety and differing habitats, they provide a much greater indicator than butterflies. Bats depend almost exclusively on adult moths for their food and the larvae provide food for many species of birds and insects. It has been estimated from surveys of just one bird species — the blue tit — that around 35 billion moth larvae are consumed each year by this bird alone. And many other popular and familiar birds are dependent on moth caterpillars as a staple for rearing their young. The decline in moths, with many larger species seeing a significant reduction in numbers, reported by the charity Butterfly Conservation last year, therefore indicates a much wider ecological problem. The new Moths Count project is at the forefront of efforts to understand the scale of the decline of moths and help reverse it. In the face of such a large problem, Butterfly Conservation, which is coordinating Moths Count, is taking on one of its biggest ever challenges. This four-year project Feature A new project aims to build public support for moths and develop the world's largest database of the distribution and abundance in the face of alarming decline in many species. Nigel Williams reports. Raising moth awareness is a partnership of individuals, conservation group branches, moth groups, government agencies, charities and businesses, all intent on raising public and political awareness of moths. A national moth recording scheme has been established to enhance the existing efforts of moth recorders. At present, anyone who sees a moth can send the observation to their county moth recorder who checks it and adds it to the local dataset. But this information will now …