Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland

View other editions of Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland.
View books by Paul Waring, Martin Townsend.

Unbeatable - Rated
This is a truly fantastic book. Great organization, excellent, detailed text on the full range of species, and inspired illustrations by the brilliant Richard Lewington.

Simply superb - THE field guide to moths - Rated
Descriptions of all c900 species of "macro" moth of Britain and Ireland with 880 species depicted in 1660 illustrations. This guide now replaces South (1961) and Skinner (1984, 1998) as the standard field guide. The plates are quite simply stunning - not just for their wealth of observed detail, but also because of their intrinsic beauty. As for the text, it is concise and clear. This is the first time comparative information has been provided in a moth guide in the form of a "similar species" section - and very helpful it is too. I have only used this guide briefly on a recent trip to the UK, but I was very impressed and look forward to using it further on future visits.

If I had to nominate my favourite guide to butterflies and moths of any region, this would be it. It deserves to be on the shelves of any naturalist.

Good but not perfect - Rated
When I started mothing I learnt identification from the Skinner volume. As has been said in other reviews Skinner gives no help in the text to sort the moths out. What is more, although the moths are photographed the reproduction is not good so details are lost along with your temper.

The book by Waring et al sorts a lot of this out as the paintings done by Richard Lewington are superb. The moths sit as you see them and shape is a large factor in identification. The text helps a great deal too telling you the important points to look for in identification. It also supplies details on range, emergence time and how common they are all of which help a lot during use.

The layout of the moths through the book follows that given in the British checklist. This is identical to that in other books so moving from one volume to another is easy if confirmation is required. It is also a handbook so it will fit in your pocket.

There are one or two problems. The first is the layout of the book. The pictures are not scattered through the book along with text relevant to each species, they are provided in four groups. Immediately you have trouble finding the pictures. I have ended up marking the site of the pictures with tabs of insulating tape just so that I can locate them. Then starting from a picture of moth, is the text for that species positioned in front or later in the book? Could be either. This may sound silly but time is precious when the moth may disappear any scond! If you are going to group the pictures, I think putting them all in a single group, at the back of the book makes far more sense.
Second for many species the text supplies "similar species". This is a good idea but some of the "similar species" do not look similar at all! In other cases they state "no similar species" and this simply is not true. Some identification problems could have been taken further as there are some groups of moths like: Uncertain, Rustic, Powdered Rustic, Vines rustic etc which are a nightmare to tell apart. They have tried reasonably well but perhaps a small section of text and a table describing the key points may be the way forward.
A third point is the inclusion of pictures of caterpillars. A good idea but you have to put ALL the caterpillars in for it to make sense. Indeed there is another book that does this so why bother wasting space in this way?
Despite all this twining on, I think it is the best Macro moth out there by far so I thoroughly recommend it.

Sensible Guide - Rated
This book was a complete treasure to find. Having only started my interest in Moths just over a year ago I had only been able to find books with insufficient information or one's that were too technical. The Moths of the British Isles by Bernard Skinner is an excellent book but too technical for a beginner and how often do you see moths with their wings spread out as in the images he gives for identification. With the Field Guide to Moths of Great Britain and Ireland the authors have been able to demonstrate what the moths would look like in different natural positions and described what I should be looking for in straight forward terms. It is an excellent reference book for beginners and the more experienced and is well worth reading. Well done I hope they go on to write other wildlife books in this format as I shall be in the queue to buy them.

The Best Moth Guide - Rated
I became interested in moths a few years ago, casually observing them at the kitchen window on summer nights.

As my interest developed, I went to a moth walk, and then decided to buy a book.

Moth identification is daunting for beginners, with so many species, some almost identical in appearance. This book is the most straightforward guide available.

It avoids the use of over-technical language and is immediately usable and readable.

Containing over 800 species, it is also comprehensive. Another good point is that it fully includes Ireland, so can be used by Irish naturalist like me, too.

Although it is quite expensive, it is worth it if you are keen on moths.

And best of all, the illustrations are superb - just look at the hawkmoth plates!