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

Thursday 21 April 2011

Field Trip - Thorndon Country Park - Brentwood

Enjoyed the first trip to Thorndon Park last night, after eventually getting there well after dark due to a massive hold up on the M25 near Brentwood, forcing me to go north to Chelmsford and get off on the wrong side of Brentwood!

The traps were assembled at about 9pm, all 4 which were 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap, 1x 125w MV Heath Trap, 1x 160w Homemade Robinson Trap and a hanging 22w Actinic.

Shortly after switching on the lights we were overwhelmed with Brindled Pugs and by the end of the session this proved to be the most common Macro (with 40+ examples), with Adela reamurella being the most common Micro (over 40 aswell)

Best moths of the night were a single Pine Beauty, a new one for me! and one fresh example of Barred Hook-tip

Here is a list of the moths recorded (without figures until I get these from my friend)

Wednesday - 20/04/11 - Thorndon Country Park

Macro Moths

Pine Beauty [NFS]
Barred Hook-tip [NFY]
Orange Footman [NFY]
White Pinion-spotted [NFY]
Brown Silver-line [NFY]
Purple Thorn [NFY]
Least Black Arches [NFY]
Common Quaker
Clouded Drab
Nut-tree Tussock
Brindled Pug
Lunar Marbled Brown
Streamer
Chestnut
Twin-spotted Quaker
Red-green Carpet
Water Carpet
Scalloped Hook-tip


Pine Beauty









Barred Hook-tip









Least Black Arches










Orange Footman - Nice and early!









Purple Thorn











Scalloped Hook-tip









Micro Moths


Light Brown Apple Moth Epiphyas postvittana [NFY]
Epinotia immundana [NFY]
Incurvaria masculella [NFY]
Syndemis musculana [NFY]
Caloptilia betulicola [NFY]
Eriocrania subpurpurella
Adela reaumurella


Epinotia immundana








Syndemis musculana

5 comments:

  1. Ah - the long-awaited Pine Beauty, nice one.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm glad you finally caught up with Pine Beauty Ben, I nearly sent you one in the post! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cheers guys, another tick indeed!

    ReplyDelete