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 27 June 2013

Hemel Hempstead Field Trip - 26/06/13

Hemel Hempstead Field Trip - 26/06/13

Last night Roger, David and myself did another field trip to the Boxmoor Trusts land. We decided to set-up 2 traps at Gadesprings like we normally do, lock it up and leave it running,
and then drive about a mile and a half to our second site. Roughdown Common is a lovely looking piece of unimproved grass chalkland with intersecting mature woodland and new plantations of mixed trees and scrub.
The site is very uneven as I found out after I slipped over chasing a moth! The amount of flora on offer at this site speaks volumes for the divesity of moths that we would record.
The evening was perfect, overcast warm and with a slight breeze. The moths did not take long to arrive and the micro's were borderline overwhelming for all of us.
Gadesprings did not fair so well, and was slightly cooler (because of the Watercress beds) with about a 1/4 of what we recorded at Roughdown. But again we found different species at this site, notably Netted Pug!
All in all a very enjoyable (and exhausting) evening, which I look forward to repeating again very soon.



Numbers of species are approximate.

121 species total

104 species at Roughdown Common (70 Macro - 34 Micro)

58 species at Gadesprings (49 Macro - 9 Micro)

17 extra  species at Gadesprings

[] = Only at Gadesprings


26/06/13
Roughdown Common - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap & 1x 80w Actinic Trap run from 9.45pm until 1.30am


Macro Moths


1x Angle Shades
5x Beautiful Golden Y
3x Brimstone Moth
1x Broken-barred Carpet
2x Brown Rustic
2x Buff Arches
1x Buff-tip
1x Burnished Brass
2x Clouded Border
20x Clouded Silver
2x Clouded-bordered Brindle
4x Common Carpet
6x Common Marbled Carpet
2x Common Pug
3x Common Swift
2x Common Wainscot
5x Common White Wave
1x Coronet
1x Dark Arches
1x Elephant Hawk-moth
1x Fern
1x Flame
4x Flame Shoulder
2x Ghost Moth
10x Green Carpet
1x Green Pug
10x Grey Pug
10x Heart & Dart
3x Ingrailed Clay
1x Iron Prominent
5x Large Nutmeg
2x Light Brocade
1x Liht Emerald
1x Lobster Moth
6x Marbled Minor
3x Marbled White Spot
1x Middle-barred Minor
2x Mottled Beauty
2x Mottled Pug
1x Orange Footman
2x Pale Oak Beauty
1x Pale Prominent
1x Pale Tussock
3x Peppered Moth
2x Purple Bar
1x Riband Wave
2x Rustic Shoulder-knot
1x Scorched Carpet
5x Scorched Wing
2x Seraphim
1x Setaceous Hebrew Character
1x Shaded Pug
2x Shoulder-striped Wainscot
1x Shuttle-shaped Dart
1x Silver-Y
10x Silver-ground Carpet
1x Small Blood-vein
2x Small Square-spot
1x Snout
1x Spectacle
10x Straw Dot
1x Sycamore
1x Tawny-barred Angle
1x Toadflax Pug
1x Treble Brown Spot
2x Treble Lines
1x V-pug
3x Waved Umber
2x White Ermine
1x Yellow Shell
 

Micro Moths

2x Celypha lacunana
6x Scoparia pyralella
1x Scoparia ambigualis
3x Crambus lathoniellus
1x Hedya nubiferana
8x Cochylimorpha straminea
4x Agapeta hamana
1x Agepeta zoegana
2x Acentria ephemerella
6x Pseudargyrotoza conwagana
1x Eupoecilia angustana
1x Nemapogon cloacella
1x Blastobasis laticolella
10x Metzneria metzneriella
1x Coleophora sp
1x Bactra sp
1x Agonopterix arenella
1x Tinea semifulvella
2x Eucosma cana
3x Eucosma obumbratana
1x Eucosma hohenwartiana
4x Tortrix viridana
3x Pandemis cerasana
1x Bryotropha affinis
1x Chrysoteuchia culmella
2x Epiblema uddmanniana
1x Epiblema trimaculana
2x Eucosma campoliliana
2x Elachista sp
2x Udea olivalis
1x Archips podana
1x Aphelia paleana
1x Epiblema cynosbatella
1x pos Eulamprotes unicolorella (to be checked)

26/06/13
Gadesprings, Hemel Hempstead - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap & 1x 160w MBT Trap run from 9.30pm until 2.00am


Macro Moths


1x Beautiful Golden Y
1x Bright-line Brown-eye []
2x Brimstone Moth
1x Brown Rustic
1x Buff Ermine []
3x Buff-tip
1x Burnished Brass
5x Cinnabar []
1x Clouded Border
1x Common Carpet
1x Common Footman []
5x Clouded Silver
1x Clouded-bordered Brindle
2x Common Marbled Carpet
2x Common Rustic []
4x Common Swift
1x Common Wave []
2x Common White Wave
2x Dark Arches
1x Double Square-spot []
1x Dusky Brocade []
1x Elephant Hawk-moth
3x Flame
3x Flame Shoulder
3x Green Carpet
1x Grey-pine Carpet []
3x Grey Pug
5x Heart & Dart
1x Ingrailed Clay
2x Large Nutmeg
2x Light Brocade
4x Marbled Minor
1x Middle-barred Minor
1x Netted Pug []
1x Pale Prominent
1x Peppered Moth
1x Rustic Shoulder-knot
1x Scorched Wing
1x Shuttle-shaped Dart
1x Silver-Y
5x Silver-ground Carpet
1x Small Square-spot
1x Snout
2x Straw Dot
1x Swallow Prominent []
1x Treble Lines
1x Uncertain []
1x White Ermine
1x Willow Beauty []

Micro Moths

4x Celypha lacunana
2x Cochylimorpha straminea
3x Crambus lathoniellus
2x Pseudargyrotoza conwagana
1x Agonopterix arenella
2x Elachista maculicerusella []
2x Clepsis spectrana []
1x Plutella xylostella []
1x Eurrhypara hortulata []



Coronet











Dusky Brocade












Eucosma campoliliana










Eucosma hohenwartiana










Eucosma obumbratana










Eulamprotes unicolorella?










Eupoecilia angustana











Fern










Netted Pug










Scoparia pyralella












Shaded Pug










Sycamore











Toadflax Pug

3 comments:

  1. Excellent effort there Ben- Loads there would be new for me. Only saw my fist Netted Pug a couple of weeks back round Trent's!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Matt, it was so nice to see lots of species again, and the low numbers of some didn't seem to hamper the evening, I would have stayed until first light but I had to get up for work at 6am!
    Netted Pug is not common, this being my 3rd in 7 years of trapping. Sycamore is just as rare in my books, being my 3rd aswell. Any ideas on that micro?
    Cheers and take it easy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Goodness Ben, that is AMAZING. And the Netted Pug is a beautiful little thing. Great photograph. All warm wishes, Martin

    ReplyDelete