Following the death in 2000 of Richard Warren, County Moth recorder for many years, Dave Emley took over and completed the Larger Moths of Staffordshire that Richard had started. Shortly after that, Waring's Field Guide to the Moths of Britain and Ireland was published showing, for the first time, moths in their resting position. This immediately opened up the world of moths to a new audience. Gone was the need to kill and set specimens.
To build on this interest it DE decided to set up a Staffordshire Moth Group to try to coordinate and increase an interest in moths in the county. This was done initially by setting up an E-group or electronic bulletin board. Here invited members can advertise their mothing evenings, exchange records, post photos for identification etc. It has proved to be very popular.
It was then decided that in order to expand and attract more moth-ers, it would be a good idea to align ourselves with the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust as a special interest group. This would allow us to advertise our activities to their membership and the Trust would benefit from the data that we accumulate.
The next development has been the construction of this website. Further development will depend on the level of interest. At present, most members seem happy to carry on with the E-group. Mothing sessions are so dependent on the weather that arranging meetings months in advance is not always possible. Using the E-group, meetings can be arrange within a few days or hours.
An inaugural meeting was held at the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust's HQ at Wolseley Bridge in November 2004 and this may become an annual event.
