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

Sunday 1 October 2017

From the garden trap, Thursday and Friday night

Still ticking along nicely here in Stevenage but the amount of moths has dipped dramatically this past week.
Still with migrants abound its worth keeping the light burning on milder nights.
Also with the lack of photography this time of year I thought I would take a few pictures of some Caddis flies (Which of course are closely related albeit more primitive than moths).
Below are my recent highlights.

New Species and species of note for the Garden/Year Report - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Scarce Bordered Straw [NFG] (28/09/17) - Thursday night I was lucky to pot up a Scarce Bordered Straw on the collar of the trap, a garden first! Having recorded a Bordered Straw in 2014 it was great to add the other one to the garden list.
I had a moment where I thought i'd recaptured the same moth that I had trapped on Monday night at Ashwell and where upon I released it near Hoddesdon after photographing it on Tuesday.
As you can see from the photo, they are very similiar and even have the same 'nick' out of the wing! The differentiating feature is the fringe looking at the picture.

Caloptilia semifascia [NFY] (28/09/17) - The commonest Caloptilia in my garden and regukar every year here since we moved here in 2012 (It took a week for one to show up back in August 2012). This particular specimen had lovely black speckling over it.

Pink-barred Sallow [NFY] (29/09/17) - On Friday the catch was pretty poor but I was rewarded with only the second garden record of this Sallow species that from my experience prefers damp woodland and marshes. The last time I saw it was in 2014.

Lunar Underwing (28/09/17 and 29/08/17) - On both nights, Lunar Underwing has been the commonest moth in the trap and a lovely dark individual with black spots on the termen was selected for a photo.
 
Scarce Bordered Straws

Pink-barred Sallow

Lunar Underwing

Caloptilia semifascia

Glyphotaelius pellucidus

Limnephilus vittatus
 
 

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