Recording

Submitting Butterfly & Moth Records.

Records, even of the commonest species, are invaluable in helping us to understand the status and distribution of species on a national and local basis and help guide conservation work. Whilst garden records are useful, records from the wider countryside are especially valuable, particularly in under-recorded areas.

How and when to submit your records

The Nottinghamshire Butterfly County Recorder prefers records to be submitted via iRecord or app. See What about online submission and apps? below.

The Derbyshire butterfly recorder prefer to receive records via email.

For butterflies, a spreadsheet is ideal with these column headings:

Recorder	Grid Ref.	Site	Date	Species	Number	Habitat	County
A. Recorder	SK3539	Aston Brickyards	10/02/2016	Peacock	1	Brownfield	Derbyshire

Further details e.g. male, female, larvae, pupae, ova etc. can be added in a notes column.

Ken Orpe (Derbyshire) and Richard Jeffery (Leicestershire and Rutland) would like to receive email records as often as is convenient. Just how often is your choice but every week or two has the advantage of allowing the recorders to share news of sightings, particularly of interesting species throughout the course of the year.

What about online submission and apps?

You may submit record via the "iRecord" Website. You will need to create an account, after which you may submit records for all your wildlife records in any part of the country. These records will then be sent on to the relevant County Recorder & Biological Records Office. There is an "iRecord Butterflies" app available for both iPhone and Android that can be used to submit records and photographs.

In Leicester and Rutland there is also NatureSpot. Records submitted in this way are forwarded to County Recorders, though this may not be until the end of the year. Please note that Nature Spot uses iRecord so please do not send your records to both as they will be duplicated.

Paper Submissions

Submissions may also be made on our Paper Recording Forms, these are usually distributed with the Spring Newsletter and are also available on our new Downloads Page. Please note these were revised for the 2015 season, so if using paper forms please use the updated versions.

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