A record-breaking year for Micro records in VC35

Last night I converted the 2016 micro datasets from Nick Felstead, Kevin Hewitt and Bob Roome and added them to the VC35 Micro database, which now stands at over 23000 records.  Last year was a record breaker, as there were 4055 records of Microlepidoptera made in Monmouthshire whereas no previous year has topped 2000.  The big total was helped by the three aforementioned moth'ers, as well as Keith Jones, Mel Jones, Simon Phipps, Ian Rabjohns, Steph Tyler (who all contributed >100 records) and a few others.  I wonder whether there are other Gwent moth'ers who haven't raised their heads above the parapet and sent in their Micro data yet.

A plot of the number of records per recorder per year shows the rise in the number of significant Micro observers, with the lines getting much more crowded in the last few years.  It also reveals Dr Neil Horton's hard work in the 1970s and 1980s, blazing the trail for VC35 moths, and my own keen period in the late 19990s before I moved to west Wales.

Let's see if we can top 5000 in 2017!