Links with the Guide
Against the name of each species is the page number of the reference to the same species (where it
exists) in the Guide, and where a scientific name now differs, the name used in the Guide follows the
current name in brackets. The latter information should prove particularly useful where the English
name of a species has also been changed.
Since the Guide went to press, a great deal of recording has taken place, and a number of species are
now known to be more widespread than the earlier publication suggested on the basis of the records
then available. To have included individual records received since the Guide appeared for all species
which the Guide regarded as localised enough to warrant this treatment would have occupied too
much space, and the Panel finally decided as a general policy to publish the new records only in the
case of species that had not been recorded since 1969 in more than ten 10km grid squares. Thus,
with very few exceptions, comparatively recent records or the status in a particular district of such
species should be sought by reference both to the systematic list in the Guide and that which follows.
An overall picture, however, of the distribution of all species is provided by the distribution maps
(see below).
Where a record cited in, or a statement derived from, the Guide appears in the systematic list, an
asterisk will be found against the entry in question unless the Guide has already been mentioned in the
text as the source.
The opportunity has been taken to publish a few corrections to the Guide and it is appropriate to
mention here that attention is also drawn to entries which cannot be substantiated in the distribution
maps contained in volumes 9 and 10 of The Moths and Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland
('MBGBI') edited by J. Heath, A.M. Emmet and others.
Family descriptions
These are intended to be of help mainly to the non-specialist reader. There are brief descriptions of
the characteristics of all the macrolepidoptera families involved. Subfamilies are also cited. The
descriptions are highly condensed and certain of the characteristics mentioned may not be present in
all species. A photograph of a typical member of most families accompanies the text. The families are
described by size according to the following rather approximate scale, measurement being taken from
wingtip to wingtip with the wings fully extended:- very small, 15-29mm; small, 30-39mm; medium-
sized, 40-49mm; large, 50-59mm; very large, 60-135mm.
Nomenclature
The Guide followed the systematic arrangement and nomenclature, both for scientific and (to a
large extent) English names, given by Heslop (1964). The systematic arrangement and nomenclature
here adopted are those of Kloet & Hincks (1972) as amended by Bradley & Fletcher (1979) and
Bradley & Fletcher in Hall-Smith (1983). The English names are those of South (1961).
Recording area
The Guide's recording area comprised the geographical county, i.e. the present administrative
county together with that part of Greater London which lies east of the River Lea. To conform with the
boundary of Vice-county 19 of the Watsonian vice-counties (a recording system not used in this work
except for the smaller moths), the area covered has been extended to include the parishes of Heydon
and Great and Little Chishill which were ceded to Cambridgeshire in 1895, and those of Haverhill
and Kedington which are now part of Suffolk.
Records have been admitted from the whole of the following important sites which straddle the
county boundary, even though the insect may have been observed on the 'wrong' side of the
boundary.-
Hackney Marshes (Essex / the former county of Middlesex)
Sawbridgeworth Marsh Nature Reserve (Essex / Hertfordshire)
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