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 24 May 2012

Catch Report - 22/05/12 - Bayfordbury University Grounds

An excellent 41 species of moth I managed to record in 2 hours of trapping from 10pm til 12am at the University grounds inbetween adjacent woodland.
The cream of the crop was a stunning Great Prominent, a first for me and one I was hoping to see at this site, having previously been recorded by Shaun Dowman at this site last year.
It literally flew in as I was packing up! a stroke of luck I would say!
Great to see more species on the wing, Broken-barred Carpet is always nice to get and a new micro was also added to my life list.
The next few nights look just as balmy, the trap was out last night in the garden and yielded a good haul, more updates on that soon.
Tonight I plan to camp out at a wood in Harlow with a few other guys to put some records on paper for a newly trapped woodland, so every record we get will be new.

The weather continues to rise to 26c+ and dropping no less than 12c at night ,with the hottest day of the expected today.





Catch Report - 22/05/12 - 2x 125w MV Robinson Trap - Bayfordbury University Grounds


Macro Moths


1x Great Prominent [NEW!]
1x Least Black Arches [NFY]
1x Broken-barred Carpet [NFY]
1x Oak Hook-tip [NFY]
1x Clouded Silver [NFY] 
2x Chinese Character [NFY] 
1x Purple Bar [NFY] 
1x Silver-ground Carpet [NFY]
4x Brimstone Moth
42x Green Carpet
7x Common Carpet
11x Oak-tree Pug
6x Brindled Pug
1x Nut-tree Tussock
4x Flame Shoulder
3x Rustic Shoulder-knot
1x Pale Tussock
1x Scorched Carpet
3x Red Twin-spot Carpet
1x Red-green Carpet
2x Waved Umber
1x Shuttle-shaped Dart
1x Common Pug
1x Garden Carpet
1x Scalloped Hazel
15x Common Swift
1x Grey Pine Carpet



Micro Moths

1x Tischeria ekebladella [NEW!] 
2x Aethes smeathmanniana [NFY]
3x Elachista argentella [NFY]
7x Cochylis atricapitana [NFY]
1x Amblyptilia acanthadactyla [NFY]
10x Crambus lathoniellus [NFY]
4x Syndemis musculana [NFY]
12x Celypha lacunana [NFY]
1x Diamond-back Moth Plutella xylostella
1x Agonopterix arenella
1x Monopsis weaverella




Great Prominent











Broken-barred Carpet











Purple Bar











Common Carpet











Oak Hook-tip










Least Black Arches











Cochylis atricapitana











Elachista argentella













Tischeria ekebladella











Aethes smeathmanniana







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