On The Wing

 

Butterflies

These pages show the commonest butterflies recorded in Yorkshire. The photos are not intended to be used for identification purposes, but may be helpful in deciding where to start looking in your favourite butterfly book (eg 'Pocket Guide to the Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland' by Lewington).

Click on any of the photos (on the page for a particular month) to see larger versions. You will probably want to take a look at the Butterfly Conservation website and also the Yorkshire branch of Butterfly Conservation (see the 'Galleries' section) for photos of butterflies which are not shown here (and more photos of the ones which are).

If you intend to start recording butterflies, it would be a good idea to join Butterfly Conservation and/or the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union (YNU) so that you will receive a copy of the annual 'Yorkshire Lepidoptera report' (this covers the moths and butterflies recorded across the county in the previous year). You should send your records to the appropriate recorder (see Yorkshire Butterflies list of recorders for details).

The statistics were calculated based on the details published in the annual reports from the Yorkshire branch of Butterfly Conservation for the six year span from 2002 to 2007 (inclusive). These started out as editions of the Argus magazine, but since 2005 they have become part of the excellent Yorkshire Lepidoptera report which is produced in conjunction with the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union (YNU). Not all the included species had data available for all of the years (eg Dark Green Fritillary statistics weren't in the first few reports), so an average figure was used for the number of sightings for a species in a given month. Some species (eg Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary) don't appear at all, because the statistics were not available - luckily, none of the commoner species are missing, so the 'league tables' shouldn't be affected too much.  Remember that these figures are for the whole of Yorkshire, so don't be too surprised if you don't see a Gatekeeper in Scarborough, despite it being the third most common butterfly in July.

Back issues of Argus and the Yorkshire Lepidoptera report can be found on the Yorkshire branch's Publications web page, which is also where you should look if you would like to purchase the excellent book which they produced - 'The Butterflies of Yorkshire'.

Click on the name of the month to view the page, although be aware that they contain quite a few photos and may take some time to download fully on a slow internet connection -

January	February	March	April	May	June
July	August	September	October	November	December

 

Moths

These pages show the commonest macro moths recorded in Yorkshire. The photos are not intended to be used for identification purposes, but may be helpful in deciding where to start looking in your favourite moth book (eg 'Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland' by Waring, Townsend and Lewington). Remember that many of the moths are quite variable in appearance, so don't just look for an exact match.

Click on any of the photos (on the page for a particular month) to see larger versions. You will probably want to take a look at the UKMoths website and also the Yorkshire branch of Butterfly Conservation (see the 'Galleries' section) for photos of moths which are not shown here (and more photos of the ones which are).

If you intend to start recording the moths that you trap, it would be a good idea to join Butterfly Conservation and/or the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union (YNU) so that you will receive a copy of the annual 'Yorkshire Lepidoptera report' (this covers the moths and butterflies recorded across the county in the previous year). You should send your records to the appropriate recorder (see Yorkshire Butterflies list of recorders for details), and the recommended (though not the only) way of doing this is to use the MapMate computer program. A national moth recording scheme is being introduced through Moths Count and you might also like to think about contributing to the Garden Moth Scheme as well.

To find out what equipment is available (eg traps, bulbs, books etc) and how much it costs, try taking a look at the websites of Anglian Lepidopterist Supplies, Atropos or Bioquip. Atropos also publish a journal which you might want to take a look at if your interest in moths develops into something a bit more serious - see our 'Atropos Index' page for details.

January	February	March	April	May	June
July	August	September	October	November	December

 

About these lists

This section of the website is all about the moths and butterflies that can be found 'on the wing' (ie flying) in Yorkshire in any particular month of the year.