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, I have now removed commenting as the bots were starting to appear
Contact Email : bensale@rocketmail.com

My Latest Notables and Rarities

Thursday, 18 October 2018

Garden Catch 22/07/18 - Common by name but not by nature!

Two new for garden species headed the catch on the 22nd of July, both Common Wave (2 examples!) and August Thorn.
The former was expected eventually but it always seems to be the rarer of the two 'white' waves, to get two in the garden on the same night after 6 years was great.

The latter species, August Thorn is a rare moth for me in Herts with just one previous record for me personally, very pleased to add it to my garden list and it pushes my Macro Moth total to 342 for the garden in total.
It is also interestingly only the second moth (After Angle Shades) that i've recorded starting with the letter A.

Jersey Tiger was only the second garden record (This is an extremely common moth in the East of Herts with over 100 being caught in Liz Goodyear's trap several times!). 

The micro's were supplemented by year firsts of Phyllonorycter geniculella and Piniphila bifasciana


Garden species count for 2018 now upto 422.

Here are the new for year species.

Catch Report - 22/07/18 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 250w Clear MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

August Thorn [NFG]
Common Wave [NFG]
Jersey Tiger
Square-spot Rustic

Micro Moths

Phyllonorycter geniculella
Piniphila bifasciana

August Thorn

Common Wave

Jersey Tiger

Phyllonorycter geniculella

Piniphila bifasciana

Square-spot Rustic

Square-spot Rustic variation
Posted by Bennyboymothman at 22:45