Hi Charles,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. It seems that a couple of notable macro-moth lists were published in the National Moth Conservation Project News Bulletin series, the latest being no.10 in 1999 and was regarded as JNCC as a provisional list as it was intended as a prelude to an official status review. The official publication was never released and so the list was not brought into the official JNCC series. Consequently the only notable moths listed on our spreadsheet are micro-moths from two sources (see link: http://www.jncc.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=3408).

The National Moth Recording Scheme is currently collecting and analysing macro-moth data which has the capacity to lead to an update of the status list. We cannot confirm the next steps or timetable involved in this. Our best estimate at present is a review and publication in 2011/2012.

JNCC has taken soundings from country agency invertebrate specialists who have expressed concern that using the 1999 list of notable macro-moths would be counter-productive as the list is out-dated and could be misleading used in some contexts. We are therefore somewhat reluctant to add this list to the designations compilation retrospectively, but have not yet made a final decision on this. Another factor is that it can sometimes need a lot of effort to check and mobilise an old list because we need to match all names against current recommended scientific names. We would prefer to wait until the next review is published before updating the designations spreadsheet in this respect.

In the meantime you may wish to use the 1999 list as mentioned above but please note that this list is not currently endorsed by JNCC and should be interpreted with care.

Best wishes, Mary