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 23 September 2018

Garden Catch 06/07/18 - A continuing theme

A continuing theme recently with back to back catches in the garden to take advantage of the warm weather, this week in July was just sweltering...with highs of nearly 30 degrees and minimum night time lows of around 16 degrees!
So it was time to break out the 250w clear for the occasion.

September Thorn was a new for year, a moth that really needs a common name change! It is a regular second to third week July moth, with stragglers into August. I have yet to record it in September!

Oncocera semirubella was a new Micro moth for the garden, a tatty individual unfortunately and also new for my garden was the Ringed China-mark Parapoynx stratiotata.
Both species excpected eventually but it might be a while before I see them again as the former is associated with chalk grassland and the latter wetland. 
After those two..to get a third new species for the garden was extremely pleasing, in the shape of the plume moth Stenoptilia pterodactyla.

It was good to record Zelleria hepariella, an unsual moth and only my second garden record (After the first just last year).

Agriphila straminella was a good 2 weeks early looking back on 12 years of data, I guess the warm weather is speeding species emergence times up somewhat.

Garden species count for 2018 now upto 335.

Here are the new for year species.


Catch Report - 06/07/18 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 250w Clear MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

Lesser Yellow Underwing
Old Lady
September Thorn

Micro Moths

Oncocera semirubella [NFG]
Parapoynx stratiotata [NFG]
Stenoptilia pterodactyla [NFG]
Agriphila straminella
Cydia splendana 
Pammene fasciana
Yponomeuta rorrella
Ypsolopha sequella
Zelleria hepariella

Lesser Yellow Underwing

Yponomeuta rorrella

Ypsolopha sequella

Old Lady

Oncocera semirubella

Parapoynx stratiotata

Cydia splendana

Stenoptilia pterodactyla

September Thorn

Agriphila straminella

Zelleria hepariella


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