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 16 April 2016

Field Trip - Hexton Chalk Pit - 14/04/16


On Thursday night I was joined by Trevor at Hexton Chalk Pit to try and see what might turn up, possibly Northern Drab...although it is getting a little late for this species now. Red Chestnut was high on my list to see this year, a moth I don't get in my garden.
The day was warm and with highs of 17 degrees it was cloudy, muggy and with no wind at all, and then about an hour before I was due to go out the heavens opened for what seemed forever, the roads were completely flooded as I drove to Hexton through Stevenage and then I got to Hitchin Road and the roads were dry as a bone!
Arriving at the reserve it looked really promising with the threat of rain subsiding we were confident of a good catch.
Sadly it wasn't to be...the moths were really hard to come by and we struggled for just over two hours where we had had enough as it got colder and colder. 
27 moths of 8 species was pretty poor from past experiences here at this time of year.

It was nice to see two of our target species, both Red Chestnut and Powdered Quaker.

Catch Report - 14/04/16 - Hexton Chalk Pit - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap, 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap and 1x 80w Actinic Trap

Macro Moths

2x Red Chestnut
1x Powdered Quaker
9x Common Quaker
4x Clouded Drab
7x Hebrew Character
1x Twin-spotted Quaker

Micro Moths

1x Agonopterix alstromeriana
1x Agonopterix arenella
Powdered Quaker













Red Chestnut













Agonopterix arenella
Posted by Bennyboymothman at 16:55

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