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

Saturday 2 April 2011

Field Trip - Parndon Wood - Friday night

Had a field trip out to Parndon Wood last night, setting up at 8pm and leaving two 125w MV robinson traps out amongst woodland, at 15c at dusk with slight cloud cover it was perfect conditions.
The trap that was positioned under a large Oak was certainly more prolific, although many more moths were found in the trap rather than the sheet this time, showing the shift of warmer flying conditions, and the catch comprising of mostly spring species as opposed to winter stragglers, whih tended to not fly too much!

On returning at 6am this morning I was pleasantly surprised with the catch, which included multiple new for years and countless Small Quaker (the total tally was 98)

Best moths included recent emergences of Lunar Marbled Brown and Frosted Green and a slightly aberrant Hebrew Character.
The micro's turned up in good numbers as well for the first time this year with Diurnea fagella and Eriocrania subpurpurella being the most common.

Friday - 01/04/11 - Parndon Wood (total of 224 moths of 17 species) - 2x Robinson 125w MV Trap
Macro Moths

19x Frosted Green [NFY]
3x Early Thorn [NFY]
7x Brindled Pug [NFY]
2x Nut-tree Tussock [NFY]
2x Twin-spotted Quaker [NFY]
5x Lunar Marbled Brown [NFY]
2x Satellite
1x Clouded Drab
1x Engrailed
2x Hebrew Character
24x Common Quaker
98x Small Quaker
15x Chestnut


Frosted Green







Lunar Marbled Brown









Brindled Pug






Brindled Pug (melanic)








Early Thorn










Hebrew Character (aberration)











Twin-spotted Quaker












Micro Moths

18x Diurnea fagella [NFY]
22x Eriocrania subpurpurella [NFY]
1x Acleris cristana [NFY]
2x Acleris notana/ferrugana

Eriocrania subpurpurella f.fastuosella










Acleris cristana












Diurnea fagella
Posted by Bennyboymothman at 16:03

4 comments:

  1. Broom Birder2 April 2011 at 18:37

    A nice catch there Ben. I hope to do as well on my April trip to the woods......

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bennyboymothman2 April 2011 at 21:36

    Thanks Matt, yes hope you do well too! it still is very early on in April and in the next few weeks we should see a whole handful of new species emerge! I can't wait

    ReplyDelete
  3. charlie streets4 April 2011 at 07:20

    Hi Ben, that Eriocrania sp. looks more like one of the birch feeders to me.It looks too purplish and heavily marked compared to the fastuosellas I've seen.Be interesting to see what others think.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AndyC18 April 2011 at 06:21

    Agree with Charlie looks like Sangii or semipurpurella.?

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)