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

Sunday 13 July 2014

Bovingdon Brickworks - Hemel Hempstead - Field Trip - 11/07/14

We went back to Bovingdon Brickworks on Friday in search of the Garden Tigers we found last year at around this time.
Also seeing other people catching them up and down the Country last week spurred me on to go all out with 5 traps and cover as much area as we could.
Using over 200 metres of cable the traps were spread out in a delta shape from the car park. 
The night started warm and muggy and once again I was plagued with horse-flies and proceeded to sit in the car until it got dark enough to avoid them!
Once dark the full moon was very bright but luckily we had imminent cloud cover and by around 10pm the moon was completely obscured.
It was quite a damp night though with a spooky mist surrounding each trap. 

Best moth of the night was a Tiger (We didn't get any Garden Tiger's unfortunately) a rare one for the County, a Scarlet Tiger and about the 7th record for Hertfordshire.
It could possibly be a wanderer as there seems to be a lot of migrant and wandering activity across the County at present which is great news for us moth'ers!

Other good Macro moths included plenty of Ruby Tigers, Millers, Bordered Sallows, Barred Hook-tip, and 8 Coronets.
On the Micro moth front the best was probably Spilonota laricana, which was taken home to double-check, as Spilonota ocellana is very similiar and was much more common on the night.

Two plumes are still to check.
The the odd looking Double Square-spot turned out to be just that.

There were literally hundreds of Chrysoteuchia culmella's and Eucosma hohenwartiana's coming to all of the traps, both easily numbering 300+ 
Lots and lots of Knapweed as far as the eye could see.

All be ready for a predicted heat wave next week, traps at the ready!


Catch Report - 11/07/14 - Bovingdon Brickworks  - Hemel Hempstead - 2x 125w MV Robinson Trap, 1x 40w Lucent Suitcase Trap, 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap & 1x 80w Actinic Suitcase Trap.

85 Macros and 61 Micros ( 146 species)

Macro Moths

1x Barred Hook-tip
1x Barred Straw
1x Beautiful Golden-Y
2x Beautiful Hook-tip
6x Bordered Sallow
1x Bright-line Brown-eye
3x Brimstone Moth

2x Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing
3x Brown-line Bright-eye
1x Brown-tail
5x Buff Arches
3x Buff Ermine 

10x Buff Footman  
1x Burnished Brass 
5x Clay
1x Cloaked Minor 
5x Clouded Border  
8x Clouded Silver
1x Common Carpet
2x Common Emerald
2x Common Footman
2x Common Rustic
1x Common Wave 
2x Common White Wave  
8x Coronet
15x Dark Arches  
8x Dingy shears 
3x Dot Moth
3x Double Square-spot  
2x Double-striped Pug
5x Drinker  
4x Dun-bar
1x Dusky Brocade
3x Elephant Hawk-moth
2x Engrailed
1x Fan-foot 
4x Flame  
2x Flame Shoulder 
1x Garden Carpet
6x Green Pug
2x Grey Pug
1x Haworth's Pug
2x Heart & Club  
2x Heart & Dart   
6x July Highflyer
6x Large Yellow Underwing
1x Leopard Moth
1x Lesser Yellow Underwing
1x Light Arches  
2x Light Emerald 
3x Miller
5x Mottled Beauty  
2x Mottled Rustic  
3x Oak Nycteoline
1x Peach Blossom
1x Pebble Hook-tip
4x Peppered Moth 
2x Poplar Grey
1x Poplar Hawk-moth
1x Purple Bar
5x Riband Wave 
7x Ruby Tiger
4x Rustic
1x Scalloped Oak
2x Scarce Footman
2x Scarce Silver-lines
1x Scarlet Tiger [NEW!]
4x Setaceous Hebrew Character
5x Shaded Broad-bar
2x Shaded Pug
1x Single-dotted Wave
1x Slender Brindle 
3x Small Elephant Hawk-moth
1x Small Fan-foot 
2x Small Fan-footed Wave
2x Small Phoenix
2x Small Rivulet
10x Smoky Wainscot
3x Snout
1x Straw Dot 
3x Swallow-tailed Moth
4x Uncertain 
8x V-Pug
3x Vapourer Moth
1x Willow Beauty

Micro Moths

2x Blastobasis laticolella
5x Pleuroptya ruralis
10+ Agapeta hamana
2x Agapeta zoegana 
2x Bryotropha terrella
1x Elachista canapennella
1x Acrobasis consociella
1x Aphomia sociella  
3x Eurrhypara hortulata
300+ Chrysoteuchia culmella
2x Pandemis cerasana  
5x Pandemis heparana  
5x Celypha lacunana
1x Archips podana
1x Hedya pruniana  
5x Hedya nubiferana
1x Hedya salicella   
2x Acentria ephemerella
5x Aleimma loeflingiana
1x Eudonia mercurella  
10x Cnephasia sp
2x Coleophora sp  
1x Ditula angustiorana
20+ Crambus pascuella
1x Phycitodes binaevella
5x Dipleurina lacustrata
20+ Eucosma cana
2x Batia unitella
2x Acleris forsskaleana
1x Acleris hastiana
1x Aphelia paleana
300+ Eucosma hohenwartiana
10x Metzneria metzneriella
5x Epiblema uddmanniana 
1x Rhopobota naevana
1x Carcina quercana
3x Brachmia blandella
1x Oegoconia sp
1x Pterophorus pentadactyla
8x Pyrausta purpuralis
1x Euzophera pinguis
1x Pseudargyrotoza conwagana
3x Endotricha flammealis
2x Plutella xylostella
3x Cochylis atricapitana
2x Orthopygia glaucinalis
5x Spilonota ocellana
1x Spilonota laricana
1x Epiblema foenella
1x Hypsopygia costalis
8x Crambus perlella
1x Emmelina monodactyla
3x Eucosma campoliliana
2x Aethes rubigana
1x Aethes cnicana
1x Batia lunaris  
1x Udea olivalis
1x Eudonia pallida 
1x Archips xylosteana
10+ Celypha striana  
5x Scoparia ambigualis
2x Yponomeuta evonymella

Scarlet Tiger











Spilonota laricana











Epiblema foenella











Elachista canapennella










Dusky Brocade










Batia lunaris











Aethes rubigana










Acleris hastiana












Acrobasis consociella

3 comments:

  1. Congratulations on the Scarlet Tiger! Fantastic catch :-) Lovely to see the photograph too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a catch - and what an amazing operation Five traps! Very interesting about the Scarlet Tiger being scarce in Herts. Here around Oxford they are lmost pests, though delightfully coloured ones. I shall try to find some larvae and send you cocoons. All warm wishes and thanks as always for your expert help with my crass IDs - Martin

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi, yes very scarce indeed, very odd how local some moths can be, even when they are strong fliers like a Scarlet Tiger is.
    It was a great night of records for the Trusts land :)
    All the best.

    ReplyDelete