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

Monday 21 June 2010

Sawbridgeworth Marsh SSSI - Catch 20/06/10

Decided to give Sawbridgeworth Marsh a go again with just a net and torch to hand, several species were quickly netted and identified, including the local Dotted Fan-foot, Blackneck and Pinion-streaked Snout
Also my second Phlyctaenia perlucidalis, a Pyralid that surely is colonising certain areas, having been listed as rare only last year!
I managed to add other species to my list, by the help from Colin Plant! whom I bumped into in the darkness (not literally!)
He was setting up his Burnished Brass pheremone traps, as he is studying if there are two seperate species as there can be noticable differences in the markings, more about that in a future post!
Very cold tonight with mostly clear skies which didn't help the Moth numbers.


Pictures


Blackneck









Dotted Fan-foot










Pinion-streaked Snout













Catch Report - Sawbridgeworth Marsh SSSI - 20/06/10 - 125w
lamp with vertical sheet + Net & Torch


Macro Moths

1x Blackneck [NFY] (NETTED)
3x Burnished Brass [NFY] (1 NETTED)
2x Pinion-streaked Snout [NFY] (NETTED)
1x Dotted Fan-foot [NFY] (NETTED)
1x Single-dotted Wave [NFY]
1x Square-spot Rustic
1x Snout
1x Setaceous Hebrew Character
1x Vine's Rustic
1x Common Wave
2x Buff Ermine
20+ Silver-ground Carpet (MANY NETTED)
1x Large Nutmeg
1x Clouded Border
1x Mottled Rustic
1x Peppered Moth
1x Blood-vein (NETTED)
1x Green Silver-lines

Micro Moths

2x Barred Fruit-tree Tortrix Pandemis cerasana [NFY]
2x Cnephasia sp.

2 comments:

  1. Some nice species there, Ben. I think i ought to get my act together and get out there netting. If i`m still awake by the time it gets dark, that is.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Dean, thanks...yes you should it is very tiring though and I didn't start until about 10pm! a net and a torch is all you need in most habitats.

    ReplyDelete