Moth

Unlike their gaudy day-?ying cousins, moths seem to reside in the shadows as denizens of the night, circling around street lights or caught momentarily in the glare of car headlights on a country lane. There are, however, many more species of day-?ying moths than there are of butter?ies, and as for colours and patterns, many moths rival or even exceed butter?ies in the dazzling range of their markings. The study of moths formed an integral part of early natural history and many thousands of drawings, paintings and physical specimens remain in museum collections. In recent years there has been a renewed surge of interest in moths facilitated by advances in digital photography, the Web-based dissemination of scienti?c expertise and new cartographic projects that enable direct collaboration between amateur experts and scienti?cally framed research projects. The rich history of vernacular names speaks to the signi?cant place of moths in early cultures of nature: names such as the Merveille du Jour, the Green-brindled Crescent and the Clifden Nonpareil evoke a sense of wonder that connects disparate ?elds such as folklore, the history of place and early scienti?c texts. To read and download some sample pages from the book please click here.