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

Wednesday 24 May 2017

Field Trip - Ashwell Quarry - 22/05/17

On Monday night and after a really warm day peaking at around 25 degrees, it was off to Ashwell Quarry with traps in tow.

Trevor and myself set about setting up all of the lights spread across the reserve covering nearly all of it.
We did a little bit of 'dusking' before it was time to switch the lights on and turned up a few micros, notably Cauchas fibulella (Is this moth on every patch of Germander Speedwell in the County of does it just favour chalky areas where the plant seems to flourish?).

The night started well and we had a bit of cloud cover to boot, but that did disappear eventually to leave a large clear sky and a slight drop in temperature to 13 degrees by 2am.
The thing that did hamper us slightly was the fact that the wind got up a bit as the night went on.

It was good to get Netted Pug which is still a scarce moth in the County and cracking to look at, also Trevor saw his first ever Pseudargyrotoza conwagana, a pretty little tortrix moth.

Also a Geometer had us really stumped. To Trevor's trap we potted up a dark grey Emerald looking species, which after much searching of books and the web I finally settled on the rare 'nigra' form of Blood-vein, minus the vein marking and with a hint of 'blood' along the fringe of the forewings

There a few outstanding specimens to be gen det, a Cochylis species and a Scrobipalpa species.

Generally numbers were a little down on what we had hoped and we didn't quite get to the target of 100 species but nevertheless some good fresh specimens were observed and it was a pleasure to just get out there and give it a go!


Catch Report - 22/05/17 - Ashwell Quarry - North-west Herts - 8 traps in total - 3x 125w MV Robinson Trap 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap 1x 40w Actinic + 15w LED Trap 1x 5w LED Trap Uva/uvb Trap & 1x 80w Actinic Trap
 
92 species

Macro Moths

Angle Shades 
Blood-vein
Brimstone Moth
Brown Rustic 
Common Pug
Clouded Silver
Common Carpet
Common Marbled Carpet 
Common Swift
Common Wainscot
Figure of Eighty
Flame Shoulder
Garden Carpet 
Green Carpet
Grey-pine Carpet
Large Nutmeg
Large Yellow Underwing
Latticed Heath
Least Black Arches
Light Brocade 
Light Emerald
Lime-speck Pug
Marbled Minor
Mottled Pug
Netted Pug
Oak Hook-tip
Orange Footman
Pale Tussock
Poplar Grey
Purple Bar
Red-green Carpet
Red Twin-spot Carpet
Rustic Shoulder-knot
Sandy Carpet
Scorched Carpet
Setaceous Hebrew Character
Silver-ground Carpet
Silver-Y
Small Fan-foot
Small Square-spot
Small Waved Umber
Snout
Spectacle
Treble Lines
V-Pug
Waved Umber
White Ermine 
White-spotted Pug
Willow Beauty
Yellow-barred Brindle
 
Micro Moths

Aethes smeathmanniana
Agapeta hamana
Agonopterix alstromeriana
Agonopterix arenella
Aphomia sociella
Argyresthia trifasciata
Aspilapteryx tringipennella
Blastobasis lacticolella
Cauchas fibulella (Swept from Germander Speedwell)
Celypha lacunana
Cochylimorpha straminea
Cochylis atricapitana
Coleophora sp
Crambus lathoniellus 
Depressaria radiella 
Dichrorampha alpinana
Elachista argentella
Endrosis sarcitrella
Epiblema cirsiana/sticticana
Epiphyas postvittana
Esperia sulphurella
Evergestis forficalis
Glyphipterix simpliciella
Hedya pruniana
Homoeosoma sinuella 
Monopis crocicapitella
Monopis laevigella
Monopis weaverella
Nemapogon cloacella
Nematopogon swammerdamella
Nematopogon schwarziellus
Notocelia cynosbatella 
Notocelia trimaculana
Plutella xylostella 
Pseudargyrotoza conwagana 
Scrobipalpa costella
Scrobipalpa sp - to be gen det
Scoparia ambigualis
Scoparia pyralella 
Syndemis musculana
Tinea semifulvella
Udea olivalis

Lime-speck Pug











Blood-vein f.nigra









 
Aethes smeathmanniana













Cochylis atricapitana










Nemapogon cloacella










Monopis crocicapitella











Cochylis sp











Notocelia trimaculana











Oak Hook-tip











Scrobipalpa costella













Tinea semifulvella










Scrobipalpa sp

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