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

Wednesday 7 July 2010

Field Trip - Parndon Wood - Tuesday night

A superb evening was to be had at Parndon on tuesday night, I decided to moth trap in conjunction with the bat walk which commenced at 9pm (which was a tad early as it really did not get dark until nearly 10pm) Plenty of bats observed and slowly but surely after turning both traps on the moths started to turn up, micro's at first, mainly Tortrix viridana and Pandemis cerasana.
I intended on staying with the trap and packing up at 12am, but this was not to be the case as at least 6 Hornet's spoilt it! so I decided to return at 3am and hoped that the Hornet's would be much calmer, indeed the theory proved correct!
Lots and lots of moths found including two species totally new for me, Lackey & Bird's Wing with an unusual butterfly encounter too! a first Purple Hairstreak.
Many other good species included the Nationally Scarce B species Waved Black and the local Lunar-spotted Pinion & September Thorn.


Pictures


Lackey (one of two)










Bird's Wing










Waved Black









Purple Hairstreak










Lunar-spotted Pinion









September Thorn











Lilac Beauty













Catch Report - Parndon Wood - 06/07/10 - 2x 125w MV Robinson Traps


Macro Moths

1x Bird's Wing [NFS]
2x Lackey [NFS]
1x Waved Black [NFS]
1x Lunar-spotted Pinion [NFS]
6x September Thorn [NFS]
1x Lilac Beauty [NFS]
6x Dun-bar [NFS]
1x Light Arches [NFS]
1x Drinker [NFS]
3x Small Fan-footed Wave
3x Marbled White-spot
1x Peach Blossom
7x Common Footman
1x Scarce Footman
4x Buff Footman
12x Riband Wave
2x Common Wave
1x Common White Wave
2x Setaceous Hebrew Character
4x Heart & Dart
2x Treble Brown Spot
3x Snout
5x Mottled Beauty
6x Buff-tip
1x Ghost Moth
4x Light Emerald
2x Black Arches
1x Common Carpet
2x Engrailed
3x Willow Beauty
6x Marbled Minor
2x Brown-tail
1x Peppered Moth
9x Uncertain
1x Rustic
4x Elephant Hawk-moth
5x Buff Arches
1x Flame Shoulder
1x Lesser Common/Common Rustic
10x Dark Arches
1x Common Wainscot
1x Smoky Wainscot
2x Dusky Brocade
1x Clouded Silver
1x Maiden's Blush
3x Green Pug
1x Bright-line Brown-eye
2x Brown Rustic
1x Short Cloaked Moth
1x Buff Ermine
4x Common Emerald
1x Shoulder-striped Wainscot

Micro Moths

4x Bramble Shoot Moth Epiblema uddmanniana [NFS]
1x Juniper Webber Dichomeris marginella [NFS]
4x Phycita roborella [NFS]
11x Conobathra repandana
3x Carcina quercana
19x Crambus perlella
12x Barred Fruit-tree Tortrix Pandemis cerasana
24x Crambus lathoniellus
22x Green Oak Tortrix Tortrix viridana
3x Red-barred Tortrix Ditula angustiorana
13x Aleimma loeflingiana
2x Bee Moth Aphomia sociella
5x Eudonia mercurella
6x Large Fruit-tree Tortrix Archips podana
3x Orthopygia glaucinalis
2x Gold Triangle Hypsopygia costalis
2x Endotricha flammealis
Posted by Bennyboymothman at 20:27

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous8 July 2010 at 13:08

    Well done with the 2 new moths & the Hairstreak.
    I once had a Red Admiral in the trap.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bennyboymothman9 July 2010 at 14:19

    Cheers Dean, yes i've heard they are also atracted to light.

    ReplyDelete

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