What is e-Surveyor?
e-Surveyor is a free mobile app developed by the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH) which allows farmers and other landowners to assess the quality of their habitats and learn more about the biodiversity they support. e-Surveyor uses AI-based identification tools to support users to identify a range of species from images and conduct structured surveys. For more information see the introduction to e-Surveyor on the UKCEH website.
Which records will appear in iRecord?
From August 2026 records from the "Moth recording survey" option within the e-Surveyor project will start to appear on the same verification pages as the iNaturalist records currently do. The vast majority of these records will be of moths, and verifiers for most other species groups will not see any records originating from e-Surveyor. However, there may be occasional records for caddisflies and some other insect groups where the image recognition process has incorrectly classified these as moths.
If you encounter such a misidentification, please redetermine it to the correct Order (or family or species if you know it), so that it can be seen by the relevant verifier for those other groups.
There is no need to query or add comments to e-Surveyor records
The main reason for including e-Surveyor records on the iNaturalist verification page is that in both of these cases it will not be possible to contact the original recorders, and the recorders will not see any comments that are added to the records. e-Surveyor participants are able to see which of their records have been verified if they consult the e-Surveyor website, but they do not receive any direct notifications and will not be able to respond to queries.
This means that if there is doubt over an e-Surveyor record you will either need to redetermine it if possible, or mark it as "not accepted", or use the "plausible" category if that is applicable.
Summary of key information about the e-Surveyor records
e-Surveyor moth records will be visible in iRecord for verification
- Each record will include at least one photograph
- The identification provided is generated by an AI image classifier (this uses the NIA classifier from the Netherlands, the same as used by iRecord and the ObsIdentify apps)
- The ‘recorder’ will be the name of the e-Surveyor participant who has run the trap and taken the photos
- Verifiers can redetermine a record if the image classifier has got it wrong, and in that case the name of the verifier will be given in the ‘determiner’ field
- Records were originally created on a one-photograph, one-record basis to support assessment of AI accuracy. A recent update now allows users to record multiple individuals of the same species against a single photograph if they are confident.
e-Surveyor and iNaturalist records will appear on the same page, with filters
- The existing iNaturalist verification pages has been updated to include e-Surveyor records
- Verifiers will be able to filter by: iNaturalist only, e-Surveyor only, or both datasets together, according to their preference
e-Surveyor recorders cannot be contacted via emails or notifications
- It will not be possible to contact the recorders e-Surveyor records (similar to the position for iNaturalist records). Queries can be added to the records for your own use if needed, but the recorders will not see them, nor will they receive verification notifications. If an identification is incorrect the record should be redetermined if possible, or rejected if not.
All records for verification will originate from the e-Surveyor Moth recording survey
- e-Surveyor also supports some other surveys, e.g. for flowering plants, but for now we are only bringing in records from the moth recording survey option within e-Surveyor
Almost all records will be of moths, but there may be occasional examples of other taxa such as caddisflies
- The image classifier is configured to return moth species only, but occasionally it misidentifies caddisflies (and other insects) as moths. If you see a caddisfly photo, please redetermine it to "Trichoptera" (or to the relevant species if you know it), or likewise use an Order or Family name for other insects where appropriate.
This new workflow will ensure that moth data collected within e-Surveyor can be verified and incorporated into local and national datasets, increasing the number of records collected from under-recorded areas and supporting long-term monitoring.
We are very appreciative of the time and expertise contributed by volunteers for verification. This update aims to support your work whilst respecting your increasing workload and ensuring that the greater volume of records continues to meet the standards of the National Moth Recording Scheme.