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 29 April 2017

Painfully slow but at last the Emperor strikes!

Last night I set the trap up as it was quite mild and cloudy and the temperature looked to hold up at least for the first part of the night, but by the morning it was a little cool and clear and I was like 'where are the moths?'
There were just two moths! One in the trap and one on the fence, that was it.

Often this is a slow period as we shift from Spring to early Summer and the Orthosia species drop off, and every year it nearly grinds to a halt with just the odd moth to save me from the dreaded blank.

Double-striped Pug was the moth on the fence and in the trap was a new for year Rustic Shoulder-knot.

But...better things were to happen this afternoon, I thought I'd just pop the Emperor moth pheromone lure out in the garden whilst I did some gardening in the vain attempt of  actually attracting one and blow me down, it worked!
Within 5 minutes I was up and down the garden with my net trying to catch it.

He was very lively indeed with his antennae flickering and we popped him in a large food tub in the kitchen to let him settle down then it was back outside on the grass for a very quick photoshoot and off he zoomed over our back fence.

Result! And Macro moth no.582 for the garden.

Emperor Moth












Rustic Shoulder-knot

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