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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

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  1. Surreybirder

    ID Tips for new moth'ers

    In my, admittedly limited experience, iNaturalist will often get you to the right genus but rarely to the right species. But you'd have to do a lot more testing to evaluate it properly. (It's like these adverts for cream on the TV, 78% of 47 women agree that their skin feels younger - but what...
  2. Surreybirder

    ID Tips for new moth'ers

    There are thought to be about 160,000 species of moths many of which will not have been photographed. No doubt the AI will improve but there could be lots of rather similar looking Noctuidae for example, some of which the AI may not have any visual data on. I am not sure that the AI on...
  3. Surreybirder

    ID Tips for new moth'ers

    I suspect that part of the challenge for AI is the lack of reliable information on the internet. If there were thousands of reliable pictures of every moth species, AI would probably be more reliable than a human - but there aren't. On the other hand, looking at the AI efforts with birds on...
  4. Surreybirder

    ID Tips for new moth'ers

    iSpot doesn't use IA for moths. If you want that, iNaturalist is an option although I sometimes find that they put up Australian or North American species for Uk moths. Google Lens is also an option. But some moths are really tricky and a more interactive approach with other users can be...
  5. Surreybirder

    ID Tips for new moth'ers

    iSpot is another option.... you get more back-and-forth on many of the observations, though to be honest some of them get ignored!
  6. Surreybirder

    ID Tips for new moth'ers

    Hi, Hillevandam, You've taken on a big challenge there o:) I'm not sure that even having the scientific names of European species will help much. There is clearly a massive amount of work to be done in just collecting specimens, cataloguing them, describing ones that are new to science...
  7. Surreybirder

    ID Tips for new moth'ers

    Pale oak beauty can be a trap for the unwary.
  8. Surreybirder

    ID Tips for new moth'ers

    Hi, Brian, I've not heard anything to suggest that the palps aren't reliable but they are very difficult to get a convincing photo of, so I was wondering whether this thing I read in Manley was reliable or not. It seems from the above that he's out-of-date. Ken
  9. Surreybirder

    ID Tips for new moth'ers

    My CR is reluctant to accept IDs based on photos of palps... I'm pretty sure he wouldn't accept this method either. I just record them as aggs. Ken
  10. Surreybirder

    ID Tips for new moth'ers

    I read in Manley that the underside of pyramidea has 'minimal copper marking beside body' whereas berbera has 'copper marking extending full length of body'. Anyone know how reliable that feature is?
  11. Surreybirder

    ID Tips for new moth'ers

    I wonder if anyone has any thoughts on how to separate triple-spotted clay and double square-spot? Skinner shows the hindwing of TSC as fairly pale, while that of DSS is much darker, almost the same as the background colour of the forewings. The forewing of TSC looks much darker than the...
  12. Surreybirder

    ID Tips for new moth'ers

    Very basic One of the things that is difficult in moth ID, in my opinion, is that when you start out with a guide book you don't know how much variability there is within a species. Also, Waring and Townsend, often say in their descriptions 'no similar species' but to a beginner at least there...
  13. Surreybirder

    ID Tips for new moth'ers

    chestnuts--Conistra sp. I had a very handsome chestnut last night (and another rather anonymous one). As far as I know I've never had a dark chestnut. Anyone got any photos that show the diagnostic differences? (The UKmoths site talks about the 's' shaped outer edge of the forewing on dark...
  14. Surreybirder

    ID Tips for new moth'ers

    variability One of my commoner autumn moths is brindled green. I often have to take a second look at them because they lose most of the green colour when they have been 'out' for a while. Also, some seem to have whitish and reddish elements more obvious than others. The photos below show some...
  15. Surreybirder

    ID Tips for new moth'ers

    I get loads of feathered gothics. But I've not seen anything else 'gothic'. This year, I want to try and see the 'lunar' underwing marking, if I can. Perhaps you've got photos of some of the other gothics? Ken
  16. Surreybirder

    ID Tips for new moth'ers

    Beginners (including me) might be confused by various "stripey" noctuids that are fairly frequent at this time of year: feathered gothic six-striped rustic lunar underwing and possibly others. They are not really that similar but perhaps enough to throw someone with no previous experience? Ken
  17. Surreybirder

    ID Tips for new moth'ers

    wainscots It's been said before, but the tip about using a paintbrush to examine the hindwings of moths does seem to work! (Occasionally you don't even need a paintbrush, but I think this one had been injured by my attempts to pot it.) Shoulder-striped wainscot, the only other one I've seen, is...
  18. Surreybirder

    ID Tips for new moth'ers

    As we are entering the square-spot rustic season, which is an unusually variable moth, I wondered if anyone has some good photos showing its different forms. Here are a couple. Ken
  19. Surreybirder

    ID Tips for new moth'ers

    I've edited this to put in a more convincing pic of a lesser yellow underwing. Also attached is a Least yellow underwing. Ken
  20. Surreybirder

    ID Tips for new moth'ers

    At this time of year when there are six or more species of yellow underwings about I wonder if anyone has a good series of photos to show the key differences? Large yellow underwing is very variable. I'll attach a couple of examples. Ken
  21. Surreybirder

    ID Tips for new moth'ers

    footmen I seem to get far more common than scarce footmen (surprisingly!) and have not had the rarer ones. But I thought that this comparison of common and scarce might give a few ID pointers. Ken
  22. Surreybirder

    ID Tips for new moth'ers

    Page 6 of Waring gives a definition. It's the length of the costa (leading edge) from wing-tip to where it joins the thorax. Ken
  23. Surreybirder

    ID Tips for new moth'ers

    http://ukmoths.org.uk/showzoom.php?id=468 Thanks, Angus. Another trap for the unwary is the no. of caddis flies that look quite moth-like. I believe that the main difference is that they have hairs rather than scales though this is hard to see. They often have long forward-pointing antennae...
  24. Surreybirder

    ID Tips for new moth'ers

    Perhaps I need to send him a couple of bodies! Ken
  25. Surreybirder

    ID Tips for new moth'ers

    Thanks, Brian. I had it down as a possible rustic. I've now added a few more photos to my previous post... just to keep you awake ;) Ken
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