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

Tuesday 5 June 2018

A belated sweeping session yields 3 new moths for me

Back on the 21st of May I had a brief hour sweeping session along a wildflower field at the edge of Hexton Chalk Pit just about in Hertfordshire (As it border's bedfordshire strangely on both sides).

I ended up with a few nice moths including 3 firsts for me, Marsh Pug, Common Heath and Pancalia leuwenhoekellam, all three species quite scarce in Herts.

If that wasn't enough I caught up with a little beauty that i've only ever seen once before, the tiny shiney Stephensia brunnichella.

The weather was warm with highs of 22c but a little breezy which made netting tricky at times.

Full list below of species seen but no counts given

There is still a Stigmella sp, Parornix sp and 2x Dichrorampha sps to gen det.

Macro Moths

Common Heath [NEW!]
Marsh Pug [NEW!]
Blood-vein
Brindled Pug
Burnet Companion
Common Carpet
Common White Wave
Green Carpet
Grey Pug
Latticed Heath
Mother Shipton
Purple Bar
Sandy Carpet
Shaded Pug
Silver-ground Carpet
Small Purple-barred
Yellow Shell

Micro Moths

Pancalia leuwenhoekella [NEW!] 
Adela reamurella
Agonopterix purpurea
Anthophila fabriciana
Argyresthia pruniella
Bucculatrix bechsteinella
Cameraria ohridella
Celypha lacunana
Dichrorampha sp 2
Elachista apicipunctella
Epiblema costipunctana
Esperia sulphurella
Glyphipterix simplicella
Grapholita jungiella
Elachista argentella
Hedya pruniana
Isotrias rectifasciana
Micropterix aruncella
Micropterix calthella
Nemapogon swammerdamella
Nematopogon schwarziellus
Notocelia cynosbatella
Parornix sp
Plutella xylostella
Pyrausta aurata
Scoparia ambigualis
Spuleria flavicaput
Stephensia brunnichella
Stigmella sp
Syndemis musculana

Marsh Pug

Common Heath

Sandy Carpet

Burnet Companion

Shaded Pug

Syndemis musculana

Stigmella sp

Stephensia brunnichella

Nematopogon schwarziellus

Pancalia leuwenhoekella


Epiblema costipunctana

Grapholita jungiella

Parornix sp

Isotrias rectifasciana

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