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

Friday 26 June 2015

Field Trip - Bovingdon Brickpits - Hemel Hempstead - 24/06/15

Last night we made the first trip of the year to Bovingdon Brickpits in Bovingdon to the South-West of Hemel Hempstead.
The evening was pretty much perfect again and we still retained a bit of the cloud cover that dominated the sky for most of the afternoon. 
We set up at around 9pm and decided to run five traps, luckily there were four of us to assemble everything which took nearly 45 minutes spreading all of the traps 50 metres apart and in a sort of semi-circle around the pits.
The moths were quick to react to the lights and species were coming in about as fast as I could write them down, an early in the evening Lime Hawk-moth was a nice surprise.
All in all we managed 146 species of which 100 were Macro species, a pretty good result for this year.
In comparison on a favourable night this time of year we have managed 180-200 species, but maybe we were a bit spoilt on those occasions!

Macro species of note included Blackneck, Buttoned Snout, Poplar Kitten, Purple Clay, Small Angle Shades and Small Yellow Wave.
Micros were slightly better with examples of Spatalistis bifasciana, Anania perlucidalis, Eana incanana and Celypha cespitana.

We packed up at just after 1pm which took a full hour to do as we sifted through five traps worth of moths.

The weather is set to get even warmer next week with talk of temperatures in the low 30's!

Numbers below are approximate. 


Catch Report -  24/06/15 - Bovingdon Brickpits - Hemel Hempstead - 2x 125w MV Robinson Trap 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap, 1x 80w Actinic + 26w CFL Suitcase Trap and 1x 40w Actinic Briefcase Trap

146 Species 100 Macros and 46 Micros

Macro Moths

4x Angle Shades
3x Beautiful Golden-Y
5x Beautiful Hook-tip
1x Blackneck
1x Blood-vein
1x Bordered Sallow
1x Bright-line Brown-eye
6x Brimstone Moth

2x Broken-barred Carpet  
3x Brown Rustic
2x Brown Silver-line
2x Buff Arches  
3x Buff Ermine  
2x Buff-tip  
2x Burnished Brass  
1x Buttoned Snout  
2x Cinnabar
8x Clay  
4x Clouded Border
1x Clouded Brindle  
25+ Clouded Silver  
2x Clouded-bordered Brindle  
1x Common Carpet  
2x Common Marbled Carpet  
2x Common Pug  
2x Common Swift
2x Common Wainscot
5x Common Wave    
2x Common White Wave
3x Coronet
8x Dark Arches

1x Dot Moth
5x Double Square-spot    
3x Elephant Hawk-moth  
3x Figure of Eighty  
4x Flame
1x Flame Carpet  
10+ Flame Shoulder
1x Foxglove Pug
3x Freyer's Pug  
1x Garden Carpet  
1x Ghost Moth
3x Green Pug
 
2x Green Silver-lines  
10x Grey Pug
5x Heart & Club
10+ Heart & Dart
 
20x Ingrailed Clay  
8x Large Nutmeg  
2x Large Yellow Underwing
1x Least Black Arches
1x Lesser Swallow Prominent
1x Light Arches     
2x Light Emerald
1x Lime Hawk-moth
1x Lobster Moth
3x Maiden's Blush
1x Maple Prominent  
8x Marbled Minor  
2x Marbled White Spot  
15+ Mottled Beauty  
2x Mottled Pug  
10x Mottled Rustic
2x Nutmeg  
3x Orange Footman
1x Pale Mottled Willow  
1x Pale Oak Beauty    
1x Pale Tussock
1x Peach Blossom  
1x Pebble Prominent 
2x Peppered Moth  
1x Poplar Kitten
1x Purple Bar
1x Purple Clay
5x Riband Wave      
3x Rustic Shoulder-knot
1x Scarce Footman   
15+ Scorched Wing    
2x Setaceous Hebrew Character
2x Shaded Pug  

7x Shoulder-striped Wainscot  
1x Silver-Y
2x Silver-ground Carpet
4x Small Angle Shades
2x Small Elephant Hawk-moth
1x Small Fan-foot
1x Small Phoenix
2x Small Square-spot
1x Small Yellow Wave  
2x Smoky Wainscot  
2x Snout  
5x Spectacle  
20x Straw Dot
1x Swallow Prominent
2x Tawny Marbled Minor

1x Treble Brown Spot
3x Treble Lines
2x Uncertain
3x White Ermine
3x Willow Beauty

 

Micro Moths

10x Chrysoteuchia culmella
2x Agonopterix arenella
1x Celypha cespitana
15+ Cochylimorpha straminea
20+ Scoparia ambigualis
5x Crambus lathoniellus
1x Epiphyas postvittana
2x Coleophora sp (white)
1x Coleophora mayrella
1x Acentria ephemerella
1x Spatalistis bifasciana
2x Plutella xylostella
2x Epiblema trimaculana
2x Hedya nubiferana
6x Hedya pruniana
10+ Crambus pascuella
3x Ditula angustiorana
8x Aleimma loeflingiana
10x Pandemis cerasana
2x Pandemis heparana
10+ Celypha lacunana
3x Agapeta hamana
1x Aphomia sociella
1x Mompha raschkiella
2x Eudonia pallida
3x Pyrausta purpuralis
4x Metzneria metzneriella
2x Teleiodes luculella
5x Udea olivalis
1x Prays fraxinella
5x Cnephasia sp
5x Pseudargyrotoza conwagana
1x Epiblema uddmanniana
2x Epiblema rosaecolana
1x Caloptilia syringella
2x Eucosma conterminana
3x Eucosma hohenwartiana
2x Eucosma cana
1x Cochylis dubitana
2x Paraswammerdamia albicapitella
2x Blastodacna hellerella
1x Mompha ochraceella
1x Archips podana
4x Anania perlucidalis
1x Pandemis cinnamomeana
1x Eana incanana
1x Nomophila noctuella

Poplar Kitten











Small Angle Shades










 
Shaded Pug












Pandemis cinnamomeana












Eana incanana











Spatalistis bifasciana

2 comments:

  1. That's a nice selection Ben! Lots of beauties in amongst them too. It's incredible to think that they are all there, perched up, as I wander through the pits :o).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Lucy. It was a very successful night indeed. I know..where do they all go?

    ReplyDelete