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 23 September 2017

From zero to hero...Autumn kicks in

Last night I ran the trap after a warm and breezy day with highs of 18 degrees, the night was expected to hold up at around 13 degrees minimum, in fact it went one degree better than that and today we have hit 20 degrees which is just lovely for the weekend.

The Humming-bird Hawk-moth continues to visit our Buddleia bush most nights here at around 5.30pm, in fact it has been so regular it's been turning up 10 out of the last 15 evenings including during the day-time today and occasionally early morning at 6.30am which i've never experienced before.

Onto the catch last night and it was pretty much breath-taking with 31 species by the morning.
11 Dusky Thorns was just silly, the most i've ever recorded in one trap with my previous highest just 4.

Black Rustic, Large Ranunculus and Brindled Green were all new for the year and all 3 I didn't record last year.

Beaded Chestnut was also a new moth for the year and my earliest ever recorded by 1 day.
On the smaller moth front, another Acleris laterana comariana was most welcome and which is such a pretty little Tortrix with delicate scale tufts. They have done very well in my garden this year with 6 records and out of those i'm hoping at least one is Acleris comariana which will be a new garden record. 

The one last night which I thought was one.... is a form of Acleris variegana that i've never seen before.

A second garden record of Hypsopygia glaucinalis was also great to see after only recording this species this year for the first time.
 
Catch Report - 22/09/17 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

1x Beaded Chestnut [NFY]
1x Black Rustic [NFY] 
1x Brindled Green [NFY]
1x Large Ranunculus [NFY]
2x Angle Shades
3x Brimstone Moth
5x Common Marbled Carpet
11x Dusky Thorn 
1x Garden Carpet
1x Humming-bird Hawk-moth (5.30pm)
27x Large Yellow Underwing
5x Lesser Yellow Underwing
2x Light Emerald
7x Lunar Underwing
2x Pale Mottled Willow 
1x Sallow
5x Setaceous Hebrew Character
1x Snout
1x Straw Dot 
3x Square-spot Rustic
2x Turnip Moth
3x Vine's Rustic
8x Willow Beauty

Micro Moths

1 Epinotia nisella [NFY] 
1x Acleris variegana
1x Amblyptilia acanthadactyla
1x Celypha lacunana
1x Emmelina monodactyla
5 Epiphyas postvittana
1x Hypsopygia glaucinalis
1x Ypsolopha parenthesella

Acleris variegana

Beaded Chestnut

Black Rustic

Brindled Green

Epinotia nisella

Hypsopygia glaucinalis

Large Ranunculus

Posted by Bennyboymothman at 16:17

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