Dear Marj, A Swallow Tail moth landed on our windowsill one evening, having not seen it before I decided to record it. Difficulty arose when selecting the species, it wasn't listed, I searched and found the name but could not enter it. Deciding to use small white and put comments in the comments area. Is there a way to insert a species name if it is not listed?
Yours frustrated (Frank)
Hi Frank.
You cannot add unlisted species, because each entry needs to be linked to the UK species inventory to the right people can see the record. However, with the exception of species new to Britain everything you see should be available to enter, so issues are usually around the spelling or punctuation.
In this case, the moth is available to record, but its name has a hyphen and is 'tailed', so it is listed as Swallow-tailed Moth. Another thing to do if you can't find a species is to Google its scientific name, in this case Ourapteryx sambucaria, and enter that instead. If you enter either of those into the species box then it should be recognised and come up in a dark blue box below where you are typing. You should then be able to click on it, and then move on and fill out all of the other fields, e.g. where it was seen, if it was an adult etc. and then click save at the bottom to complete your record.
I'm not sure why you chose to use Small White instead. That record will go to your local butterfly recorder, who will probably just reject it as incorrect. I would therefore suggest going to the Explore menu and going down to 'my records'. From here you will be able to see the Small White record and edit it by clicking on the icon of a pencil on a square at the right hand side of the record. From there, change the species to Swallow-tailed Moth, click save and it should be sorted.