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

Monday 6 July 2015

Two new moths

Another trapping session last night in the garden, yielded less moths but a better array of species.
It was quite a warm and muggy day but we did have some light showers and it was relatively windy when I returned from the British Grand Prix.
The trap was switched on at around 9.45pm and the sky was duly clearing.
By the morning it felt a lot cooler than recent times at around 12 degrees there was a little nip in the air and you could see your breath.
Good moths included 3 Elephant Hawk-moths (I only had my first of the year on Friday, they must have heard me complaining about how scarce they had been so far in the garden!) July Highflyer and 3 Single-dotted Waves.

Argyresthia cupressella was quite an uncommon moth that unfortunately had seen better days.

 The best was yet to come...on careful examination of each egg tray that I lifted from the trap, I noticed two 'interesting' micro moths. The first looked like a Epinotia nisella, but didn't look quite right so i potted it up. 
It turned out to be a new moth for me, an Epinotia signatana.
The second moth looked like a large Bryotropha of somekind but on closer inspection had 6 little shiny bumps on the dorsum reminiscent of Psoricoptera gibbosella under a hand lens it was clear that it didn't fit this species so I searched through my books and online images and finally found it.
Exoteleia dodecella was a match and another completely new moth for me!


Catch Report -  05/07/15 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

1x Small Emerald [NFY]
3x Single-dotted Wave [NFY]
1x July Highflyer [NFY]
1x Dun-bar [NFY]
2x Common Emerald
3x Elephant Hawk-moth
1x Engrailed  
8x Common Footman
1x Cabbage Moth  
3x Clouded Silver  
1x Willow Beauty
1x Flame
1x Mottled Pug
1x Garden Carpet  
3x Double-striped Pug  
2x Dwarf Cream Wave  
1x Clouded Border  
5x Riband Wave
14x Uncertain  
1x White Ermine  
2x Mottled Beauty
1x Spectacle  
1x Snout
2x Swallow-tailed Moth  
2x Marbled Minor  
4x Dot Moth  
2x Double Square-spot  
5x Mottled Rustic
1x Cinnbar  
8x Heart & Dart  
2x Heart & Club  
2x Bright-line Brown-eye
1x Peppered Moth  
2x Brown Rustic  
1x Blood-vein
1x Beautiful Golden-Y
1x Beautiful Hook-tip

Micro Moths

1x Epinotia signatana [NEW!]
1x Exoteleia dodecella [NEW!]
1x Tinea pellionella [NFY]
1x Argyresthia cupressella [NFY]
1x Batia lunaris [NFY]
1x Yponomeuta evonymella [NFY] 
1x Bryotropha affinis [NFY]
2x Endotricha flammealis
8x Chrysoteuchia culmella
1x Archips podana  
1x Teleiodes vulgella  
1x Scoparia ambigualis  
6x Celypha lacunana  
2x Epiphyas postvittana  
1x Emmelina monodactyla  
2x Celypha striana
1x Eudonia mercurella
1x Coleophora sp
1x Zeiraphera isertana  
2x Clepsis consimilana  
3x Eudonia lacustrata  
3x Anania hortulata

Exoteleia dodecella











Epinotia signatana












Exoteleia dodecella - Dorsal view













Argyresthia cupressella











Bryotropha affinis












Three Elly's













Buff and White Ermine
Posted by Bennyboymothman at 20:17

2 comments:

  1. Trent Duval7 July 2015 at 21:03

    There are only 6 records of A. cupresella in VC30. All mine, which I find incredible. I put it to our recorder that they are being overlooked so I'm glad you got one. OK it's not quite VC30 but you are closer than a large part of VC30 to me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bennyboymothman8 July 2015 at 07:33

    Really...yes it must be being over-looked for perhaps something like an Argyresthia goedartella? This is only my second ever record and the 4th County record (Jono Forgham had the 3rd a week ago).

    ReplyDelete

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