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

Saturday 12 September 2015

Celebrating the 1000th post with Turnip moths!

1000 posts, I cannot believe I have reached this milestone. It has been an incredible journey and here are my first posts http://bensale-essexmoths.blogspot.co.uk/2008_12_01_archive.html
Over the years I tweaked the blog to suit mine and my audience needs and have settled on this design for awhile now.

Onto the moths and I am pleased to report two more new garden records and finally my first year sightings of Turnip Moths...I wait all year for one and two turn up in the same night and of different colour forms, I have never been so pleased to see them, a real treat from a common Macro moth, well usually.

Latticed Heath and Eudonia angustea were the new garden records, both surprising really as they are listed as common moths and rightly so having probably seen hundreds over the last 9 years.


Catch Report -  11/09/15 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

1x Latticed Heath [NFG]
2x Turnip Moth [NFY]
1x Centre-barred Sallow [NFY]
1x Lunar Underwing
1x Spectacle
2x Silver-Y
1x Garden Carpet
1x Flounced Rustic
2x Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing
2x Willow Beauty
3x Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing
11x Square-spot Rustic
3x Lesser Yellow Underwing
2x September Thorn
4x Setaceous Hebrew Character
16x Vine's Rustic
5x Common Wainscot
28x Large Yellow Underwing
1x Orange Swift
1x Brimstone Moth
1x Light Emerald
2x Double-striped Pug

Micro Moths

1x Eudonia angustea [NFG]
1x Ditula angustiorana
1x Carcina quercana
1x Bucculatrix ulmella
3x Epiphyas postvittana
2x Blastobasis lacticolella
1x Amblyptilia acanthadactyla
1x Agriphila geniculea
2x Pleuroptya ruralis

Latticed Heath












Turnip Moths










 
Centre-barred Sallow












Eudonia angustea
Posted by Bennyboymothman at 17:20

4 comments:

  1. Billy Dykes12 September 2015 at 18:34

    1000 posts?! Great stuff! I just checked my stats and realised I'll be going into my 8th year of blogging - time flies, eh?!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Simon Douglas Thompson12 September 2015 at 21:33

    I remember coming across latticed heaths last year, and thinking I'd found fritillary butterflies!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lucy @ A Natural Interlude13 September 2015 at 16:23

    What a fantastic milestone, Ben! As whole, I bet your records make for an interesting view on the rise/fall of moth numbers at the locations you trap at. Great stuff!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Bennyboymothman13 September 2015 at 19:54

    Thanks Bill, yes time has flown, living across two Counties and having fond memories of species I found regular in Essex that are rare or obsolete here in Hertfordshire and vice versa.
    Simon, indeed they do look like Butterflies and particularly as they can be disturbed by day makes it even more confusing! On another note Skipper Butterflies are nearer to Moths taxonomically than Butterflies, we may see a revision where they are classified as mpths in the future... Lucy, yes it is humbling to look back at the records that I have made along my path of discovery. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete

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