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 17 June 2017

In search of the Wild Liquorice Moth...a tip off

Last Monday whilst out and about with work, I had a quick walk along a known site for Grapholita pallifrontana, otherwise known as the Wild Liquorice Moth.
Luckily to save me time in ssearching, Andy Banthorpe had said that he saw it at Old Warden Tunnel which is a disused railway line left to nature and what a beautiful place it is.

Unfortunately the wind was very strong and upnon finding the foodplant there were no visible signs of the moth sitting on the foodplant, so I gently swept it and on my 4th sweep had what I had come looking for.
I did a few more sweeps but no more were found. I can only assume that because of the strong breeze that they were staying lower down on the stems of the plant.

Other bits of interest were several Burnet Companions flying around as well as a few sightings of Burnet Moths.

On Cow Parsley was the striking Lepturinae Rutpela maculata and whilst sweeping grass randomly I turned up a new species of Cerambycidae for me, the pretty Anaglyptus mysticus.

So all in all a quick 30 minute walk was well worth it.

Wild Liquorice

Grapholita pallifrontana

Rutpela maculata

Anaglyptus mysticus



No comments:

Post a Comment