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

Thursday 28 September 2017

Field Trip - Ashwell Quarry - 25/09/17

On Monday night I returned back to Ashwell Quarry as it was a warmish day but not the expected 19 degrees, instead we had 16 degrees and rain...not ideal for a night of mothing.
A minimum of 10 degrees was the forecast but luckily, the thick cloud cover held the temperature up at 14 degrees even right upto packing up time at 11pm.

It was exactly 3 weeks since I last trapped here where I managed lots and lots of migrants but I wasn't hopeful for a migrant bumper night like last time as the wind direction was from the East and not the 'ideal' South-West, and it wasn't very much and got damp really quickly.

Luckily I didn't get wet!

Best moths were singles of Deep-brown Dart and Mallow and I did get a smidge of migration with a rather tatty Scarce Bordered Straw and a Plutella xylostella.

45 species was a pleasing amount for a relatively early session starting from 7pm until 11pm, no doubt that if my tiredness hadn't taken hold of me and I stayed a few hours later, I might have added a few more species.
 
Catch Report - 25/09/17 - Ashwell Quarry - North Hertfordshire - 4 traps in total - 2x 125w MV Robinson Trap 1x 40w Actinic + 15w LED Trap and 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

Angle Shades 2
Barred Sallow 8
Beaded Chestnut 14
Beautiful Hook-tip 1
Black Rustic 3
Brimstone Moth 5
Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing 4
Brown-spot Pinion 8
Burnished Brass 1
Common Marbled Carpet 3
Common Wainscot 25
Copper Underwing 1
Deep-brown Dart 1
Dusky Thorn 2
Frosted Orange 1
Large Yellow Underwing 10
Latticed Heath 1
Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing 1
Lesser Yellow Underwing 8
Light Emerald 2
Lunar Underwing 10
Mallow 1
Pale Mottled Willow 2
Scarce Bordered Straw 1
Setaceous Hebrew Character 200+
Shuttle-shaped Dart 1
Snout 5
Square-spot Rustic 10
Turnip Moth 1
Willow Beauty 5
Yellow-tail 1

Micro Moths

Acleris rhombana 2
Acleris sparsana 2
Acleris variegana 2
Blastobasis lacticolella 2
Clepsis consimiliana 2
Cochylis molliculana 1
Coleophora trifoli 1
Emmelina monodactlya 1
Emmetia marginea 1
Endrosis sarcitrella 2
Eudonia pallida 8
Hypsopygia costalis 1
Monopis crocapitella 1
Plutella xylostella 1
Scrobipalpa costella 1
 
One of the traps over-looking the lower meadow

Beaded Chestnut

Deep-brown Dart

Mallow

A rather sorry looking Scarce Bordered Straw

Scrobipalpa costella

Yellow-tail

Posted by Bennyboymothman at 15:45

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)