Common Moth Acronyms/Abbreviations (UK) (2 Viewers)

[dantheman]

Thread for generally accepted moth name acronyms/abbreviations. Saw a thread on here which triggered this - there's a difference between just mashing names up and ones which are used by common agreement/consensus. Please feel free to post up any which may be useful to know/discuss their validity. Generally common/numerous species which would be time consuming/annoying to keep writing out in full when moth recording!

LYU - Large Yellow Underwing
LBAM - Light Brown Apple Moth

Both can be pretty common and long-winded to write out in full!

Context can also be relevant. Most moths not necessarily getting the treatment, although you might abbreviate most things in your notebook on the night!

Oh, and things have to be unique. So eg Lesser Yellow Underwing couldn't be LYU too (Lesser YU??).

 

[Phil Andrews]

Difficult to know others use - my notes are full of BBYU, RSK, DSS, CWW which are fairly obvious but I will also use CF cos of the number of Common Footman I get.

 

[Atropos]

SY, DSG, H+D, SSD were ones I used regularly...am sure there were more but been too long since I trapped in UK. Even sadder though was that at one stage I knew all the Recorder codes for the common UK species and my notebooks are just a series of 4 digit numbers with a series of lines for when I was counting number of individual in the trap with a total in a circle at the end of each line....

 

[aeshna5]

Thread for generally accepted moth name acronyms/abbreviations. Saw a thread on here which triggered this - there's a difference between just mashing names up and ones which are used by common agreement/consensus. Please feel free to post up any which may be useful to know/discuss their validity. Generally common/numerous species which would be time consuming/annoying to keep writing out in full when moth recording!

LYU - Large Yellow Underwing
LBAM - Light Brown Apple Moth

Both can be pretty common and long-winded to write out in full!

Context can also be relevant. Most moths not necessarily getting the treatment, although you might abbreviate most things in your notebook on the night!

Oh, and things have to be unique. So eg Lesser Yellow Underwing couldn't be LYU too (Lesser YU??).

But surely LYU could also be Lesser Yellow Underwing, so LYU rather ambiguous?

 

[Farnboro John]

But surely LYU could also be Lesser Yellow Underwing, so LYU rather ambiguous?

It could but the convention is that it is Large. Let's not forget LBBYU either. For completeness, TLB is Tree Lichen Beauty.

John

 

[dantheman]

But surely LYU could also be Lesser Yellow Underwing, so LYU rather ambiguous?

See the last sentence in my post #1

It only works, yes, on the assumption you know what you are thinking it means. When trapping S England summer - through to autumn, Large YU would be expected for me every single session, being the default sp. Lesser would only be occasional ...

 

[dantheman]

SY, DSG, H+D, SSD were ones I used regularly...am sure there were more but been too long since I trapped in UK. Even sadder though was that at one stage I knew all the Recorder codes for the common UK species and my notebooks are just a series of 4 digit numbers with a series of lines for when I was counting number of individual in the trap with a total in a circle at the end of each line....

Dark Sword Grass, Heart + Dart, Shuttle-shaped Dart?? Not sure on the first, but useful on the others ...

 

[dantheman]

I was working on the assumption that there are kind of similar species compositions that make it worth doing ... not sure if that is totally the case!

DBM is one I saw previously, didn't know at the time what it was. Diamondback Moth - perhaps definitely worth abbreviating for a coastal migration hotspot, not so sure everywhere else all the time ...

Anyway ...

 

[Atropos]

Dark Sword Grass, Heart + Dart, Shuttle-shaped Dart?? Not sure on the first, but useful on the others ...

SY is Silver Y (just in case the comment wasn't ironic!); others I used were PUW, PMW, BLBE and BtLBE the list went on ...I was a very lazy mother and if I could avoid writing I did!

 

[dantheman]

SY is Silver Y (just in case the comment wasn't ironic!); others I used were PUW, PMW, BLBE and BtLBE the list went on ...I was a very lazy mother and if I could avoid writing I did!

No, my moth trap has been out of action for a while, so I'm pretty rusty! (Although have seen a fair few in the daytime this year).

I always shortened things, but usually only partially, eg Willow B., Knot G. and Set H Ch.


I still think a general list of accepted and 'necessary' abbreviations useful, but abbreviating every single 2 word name or uncommon species probably not the point!

 

[Atropos]

No, my moth trap has been out of action for a while, so I'm pretty rusty! (Although have seen a fair few in the daytime this year).

I always shortened things, but usually only partially, eg Willow B., Knot G. and Set H Ch.


I still think a general list of accepted and 'necessary' abbreviations useful, but abbreviating every single 2 word name or uncommon species probably not the point!

I used to do it as I ran multiple traps in a night and emptied them using dictaphone (shows my age) and would just talk into it and then once everything was ID'd or put in a pot to be looked at later would play the tape back and add write the list so say Large Yellow Underwing every time was a pain and used LYU instead...and it developed from there

 

[Farnboro John]

I was working on the assumption that there are kind of similar species compositions that make it worth doing ... not sure if that is totally the case!

DBM is one I saw previously, didn't know at the time what it was. Diamondback Moth - perhaps definitely worth abbreviating for a coastal migration hotspot, not so sure everywhere else all the time ...

Anyway ...

If you're doing micros and have a big catch its always worth abbreviating where you can. DBM works for me: I've only had a a few this year but every little helps.

John

 

[Steve Lister]

I tend to use initials for a lot of the commoner micros so PX, HP, CC, AS, EP (quicker than LBAM).
Looking at this week's notes I also have SHC, AC, MoP.
But these might mean nothing to anybody else.
I stick to Large YU and Lesser YU (both common here), BBYU and LBBYU.

 

[renopaul]

SY is Silver Y (just in case the comment wasn't ironic!)

You could use Γ (or γ) for Silver Y to save on pencil lead

 

[Andy Adcock]

Difficult to know others use - my notes are full of BBYU, RSK, DSS, CWW which are fairly obvious but I will also use CF cos of the number of Common Footman I get.

Don't forget that many moths are not caught, everywhere so stuff you get regularly, won't occure elsewhere and what others get, you won't so people won't be familiar with the same abbreviations.. I can see it's appeal at notebook level but I do think it's a bit lazy when it's for public consumption. I use my own abrreviations in daily catch notes but wouldn't do so here.

 

[Atropos]

Don't forget that many moths are not caught, everywhere so stuff you get regularly, won't occure elsewhere and what others get, you won't so people won't be familiar with the same abbreviations.. I can see it's appeal at notebook level but I do think it's a bit lazy when it's for public consumption. I use my own abrreviations in daily catch notes but wouldn't do so here.

Absolutely I used these solely for my note taking, I used to write summaries for Atropos and always wrote the names in full in those situations