Welcome

Hello and welcome to my moth Blog. I now reside in a small village in East Cambridgeshire called Fordham. My Blog's aim is to promote and encourage others to participate in the wonderful hobby that is Moth-trapping.
Moth records are vital for building a picture of our ecosystem around us, as they really are the bottom of the food chain. They are an excellent early indicator of how healthy a habitat is. I openly encourage people to share their findings via social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.
So why do we do it? well for some people it is to get an insight into the world of Moths, for others it is to build a list of species much like 'Twitching' in the Bird world. The reason I do it....you just never know what you might find when you open up that trap! I hope to show what different species inhabit Cambridgeshire and neighbouring counties.
On this Blog you will find up-to-date records and pictures.
I run a trap regularly in my garden and also enjoy doing field trips to various localities over several different counties.
Please also check out the links in the sidebar to the right for other people's Blogs and informative Websites.
Thanks for looking and happy Mothing!

KEY

NFY = New Species For The Year
NFG = New Species For The Garden
NEW! = New Species For My Records

Any Species highlighted in RED signifies a totally new species for my records.

If you have any questions or enquiries then please feel free to email me
Contact Email : bensale@rocketmail.com

My Latest Notables and Rarities

Friday 16 October 2009

Confusion Species - Chestnut/Dark Chestnut

Hello everybody
As a relatively new face on the Moth scene I thought I would post articles on comparisons and similiarities of Moth confusion species that may help others.
It's a topic that comes up alot on the Back Garden Moths forum and there is also much speculation about certain species still today which leads to regular discussions and debates.
My thanks go out to Nick Smith who contributed images of Moths I haven't recorded yet to complete this article.

Let's start with a typical Autumn species.......

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The Chestnut/Dark Chestnut

The first thing you'll notice about these two Moths is the similiar colouration, in fact the Moth Dark Chestnut is abit of a taboo name as it is not necessarily darker than The Chestnut.

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The Chestnut

















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Dark Chestnut
























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How to tell these two apart?


The Chestnut










Dark Chestnut










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The Chestnut has a straight outer edge to its forewing, the Dark Chestnut has an S-shaped outer edge to the forewing as shown above.
Most Chestnut have typically rounded edges to the wings although there are times when slightly worn specimens can look superficially like Dark Chestnut, see image below, this Moth was trapped in 2008 and really gave me a headache because it showed signs of being a Dark Chestnut.....til this day I have yet to see one.

Update: Caught my first one on 23/10/09 see above pictures of Dark Chestnut.

The Chestnut (Darker form which could lead to mis-dentification)

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