New book on Bristol moths

Release Date:  04-Dec-2008

A book about moths in the Bristol Region is to be formally launched this week at Bristol’s City Museum & Art Gallery and will reveal how climate change is affecting the city’s Moth population.

For the past 18 years the Bristol & District Moth Group, whose members are all fascinated amateur naturalists, have been running bright lights in the countryside and in their gardens in order to find out which species of moth are found locally and whether they are increasing or declining.

The results have been published in ‘Moths of the Bristol Region’, which follows a national report suggesting that moth populations are in danger with many species in decline.

The book is fully illustrated with photographs of species and habitats, distribution maps and flight charts.  It includes detailed information on the rare specialities of the region such as the Silky Wave Moth, which is only known in the British Isles from three sites, one of which is the Avon Gorge.

Tim Corner, Manager of Bristol Regional Environmental Record Centre says: “We might think of moths as pesky pests but actually there are over 1,500 species known from the Bristol region and only a couple of those species are actually pests.  Many are as attractive, or even more so, than the day flying butterflies we are more familiar with.  Moths and their caterpillars are a crucial part of the food chains, which many of our favourite birds (such as Blue Tits) depend on and if the number and variety of moths declines so do the birds.”

The publication aims to raise the profile of moth conservation locally and to encourage recording to fill in large gaps we still have in our knowledge and to use animals such as this to monitor changes taking place in the environment due to factors such as climate change.

The ‘Moths of the Bristol Region’ will be officially launched on Friday 5th  December at Bristol’s City Museum & Art Gallery.

ENDS

Author:   Corporate Communications, tel. 0117 922 2646.

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