Moth Dissection.

Identifying many moths, especially November from Pale November and the Minor's cannot be reliably identified by external features alone. The only reliable method is to dissect a small sample from an area to identify them. The reproductive structures in the abdomen provide the evidence.

I am only just starting out in this black art and attended a day course at Liverpool's World Museum entomology department. This was absolutely excellent and hopefully will be repeated. The course was supported by Butterfly Conservation and run by Jon Clifton of ALS fame. Steve Palmer, Shane Farrell and all the staff from Liverpool World Museum entomology department made this event really enjoyable and informative. Details of such events can be found on the Lancashire Moth Group Website (http://www.lancashiremoths.co.uk/visitor/Events.aspx )

The basic technique is simple if you have carried out mammalian or other dissections before at school. For the absolute beginner it is still possible with patience.

There are several invaluable resources available as well as suppliers of equipment and chemicals.

The most useful site is Anglian Lepidopterist Supplies ( http://www.angleps.com/ ), who both supplies equipment, chemicals and microscopes (such as the AJ05) as well as a dissection guide ( http://www.angleps.com/guides.php )

The dissection guide written by Shane Farrell is also very good. ( 20051215 dissection course notes.pdf )

A dissecting microscope makes the job a whole lot easier than using either a hand lens or a compound microscope. They provide a greater depth of field and often variable magnification (5-20X is ideal)

I have found microscopes from GX Optical in Suffolk to be of excellent quality and they are always willing to give advice (http://www.gxoptical.com/html/stereo_microscopes.html ). The 7-45X zoom trinocular headed dissection microscope is optically superb and gives the facility to attach a digital camera to photograph the dissections.

Once dissected the preparations can be compared with those in reference text books or from photographs from the Lepidoptera Dissection Group.( http://www.dissectiongroup.co.uk/ ). Below are some reference pages from the Dissection group's website.

I am hoping to dissect some Pugs as well as the Minor's and Winter moths to determine exactly what I am catching this year. I hope to build up an image library of dissections for future reference.