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

Field Trip - Bovingdon Brickworks - 09/09/15

I enjoyed catching up with the guys at Hemel on Wednesday night and we decided to blitz Bovingdon Brickworks with five traps.
Having had a chat with a local home owner we got permission to drive up a private road and unload the gear nearer to the site and that cut-down on the setting up time as the darkness rapidly approached at around 7.45pm.
The day was warm with highs of 20 degrees but complete lack of cloud didn't bode well and it was cool soon after dark with wasn't great but we did persevere and trapped for nearly 4 and a half hours, enough time to sample some of the local moths that were on offer.
The moths were sparse but 2 stunningly marked Sallows were nice to see and the migrant White-point turned up as we were packing a trap away, numbers of some species were quite high indeed, Acleris emargana for instance we counted at least 15 and Epinotia nisella numbered 20+

 All in all it was nice to get out again after nearly two months!


Catch Report -  09/09/15 - Bovingdon Brickworks - 2x 125w MV Robinson Trap 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap 1x 40w Actinic & 1x 80w Actinic + 26w CFL Suitcase Trap

Macro Moths

1x Angle Shades
17x Brimstone Moth
1x Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing
10+ Centre-barred Sallow
1x Common Carpet
3x Common Marbled Carpet
4x Copper Underwing
3x Dusky Thorn
8x Feathered Gothic
1x Flame Carpet
3x Flame Shoulder
1x Flounced Rustic
5x Green Carpet
1x Grey-pine Carpet
10+ Large Yellow Underwing
1x Light Emerald
2x Riband Wave
2x Sallow
1x Setaceous Hebrew Character
2x Small Phoenix
10x Small Square-spot
15+ Square-spot Rustic
2x Straw Dot
1x White-point
1x Willow Beauty
1x Yellow Shell

Micro Moths

 15x Acleris emargana
1x Agriphila straminella
20x Epinotia nisella
5x Agonopterix arenella
10x Blastobasis adustella
2x Eudonia pallida
1x Pandemis corylana
1x Monopis weaverella
2x Acleris rhombana
6x Rhopobota naevana
1x Agriphila tristella
1x Pleuroptya ruralis
2x Acleris laterana
1x Prays fraxinella
1x Cydia fagiglandana
2x Ypsolopha parenthesella
2x Grapholita janthinana

Epinotia nisella










Sallow













Grey-pine Carpet












Acleris laterana












Grapholita janthinana

 
Posted by Bennyboymothman at 12:06

3 comments:

  1. Lucy @ A Natural Interlude12 September 2015 at 16:44

    Great to hear how you got on, Ben. I've come across 3 White Ermine caterpillars at the site over the last couple of weeks, all crawling along the path. There's also been a UFO: assume it's a day-flying moth. Bright orange, speedy flier, keeps above head height and never settles. Seems territorial (3+ specimens). Flies among the Oaks and Ashes. Hoped I might be able to net it at some point but failed. Any ideas, lol?! All the best :o)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bennyboymothman13 September 2015 at 19:49

    Hi Lucy
    Thanks for commenting, hope you are still finding plenty of things to take pictures of. Well done on the White Ermine cats, i've never seen them before! Hmm the orange moths you are seeing, I have never seen micros being territorial, are they now Skipper Butterflies? Or is that too late now hmmm. I have no idea sorry!
    All the best and take care.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lucy @ A Natural Interlude14 September 2015 at 09:51

    Hi Ben, ah, no worries re: the UFO. It was a long shot. I've ruled out any common butterflies (all finished). Maybe I'll have to wait until next year and try the net again :-)!

    ReplyDelete

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