Providing Moth Records
Records in Essex are collated by the County Recorders, who compile and maintain detailed records of Essex flora, fauna and geology. This involves a considerable amount of work by those recorders on the ground who make these records in the first place and also in the subsequent verification of data, data entry, data validation and data management of these records. The aim is to make these data available on a non-commercial use basis to everyone to aid the conservation and management of species and their habitats in the form of the distribution maps and autecological information provided on this website. Moth records will also be regularly provided to the National Moth Recording Scheme (NMRS) under the terms of their Data Policy provided here as a pdf file or on the Moths Count website 
. All recorders supplying moth records to the County Recorders will be considered to have granted permission for their use as outlined here and in the NMRS Data Policy.
. All recorders supplying moth records to the County Recorders will be considered to have granted permission for their use as outlined here and in the NMRS Data Policy.
submitting moth records
- The best preference for providing moth records is as a MapMate sync file (to cuk 2gv), to Peter Harvey, , 32 Lodge Lane, Grays, Essex RM16 2YP.
- The next preference is for records in Excel using a record format template, provided here with a checklist updated to the latest one in use in MapMate. This is an updated December 2024 Excel file which now includes Essex-based Butterfly Conservation Verification codes for each species entry, a column for recording verification actions, as well as the existing reference taxon list and drop-down entries for some MapMate fields where consistency will help make use of the data in structured analyses. Your taxon entry is done by entering the 4-digit Bradley number or the "new" decimal-style 2013 checklist number* - this helps ensure that typos are not created and that importing the records is a relatively painless process. The columns for verification codes and last year recorded in Essex also provide a direct link to the Essex Field Club Species Account page with map etc and more information on the codes. Please get back to me at if you find any problems. If you want to sort your Excel records, you will need to unprotect the sheet (password Lepidoptera, case sensitive). It is protected only to prevent accidental changes to the lookup formula.
*"A checklist of the Lepidoptera of the British Isles" by Agassiz, D.J.L., Beavan, S.D. & Heckford R.J. 2013. - Excel records could be provided in other formats as long as there is clear consistency to the format and all the basic record information is provided (taxon binomial, site location, grid reference, date, recorder, determiner minimum, preferable also some info on habitat, quantity, whether voucher retained, whether confirmed etc). Please DO NOT abbreviate names or use Vernacular names instead of the latin binomial, although using Vernacular names as well is fine.
- Lists tabulated in Word would also be ok if they provide the same data format.
- The least preferred option is hard paper copy, and worst of all handwritten - it can be remarkably difficult to decipher other people's handwriting, quite apart from the time involved in dealing with data in this format! If you have no other way of providing records than paper, then these are obviously wanted, but PLEASE provide these as lists for a single date and location - it is much, much quicker to deal with records in this format than ones listed by taxon for multiple sites and dates.
Records received by MapMate synchronisation (syncs) can be uploaded to update the distribution maps very easily and quickly, but paper copy records and Excel data in unfriendly format are likely to go into a backlog which may not be included for some time.