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

Thursday 27 June 2019

Field Trip - Bramfield Park Woods - 23/06/19

A cracker of a night was had at Bramfield Park Woods on Sunday night, with 3 traps run 50m apart and a further one MV trap run in a different part of the wood.
The day was cloudy and warm, upto 24 degrees and the evening looked spot on for a good session.

As always something just had to put that doubt in my mind, as I finished setting up my traps, it started spitting! and the sky looked extremely angry and storm like... plastic bags over the electrics and rain covers on the traps ASAP, it was like some sort of military operation! 

Thankfully, those spots of rain came to nothing, it was a little breezy in certain places around the wood, but 3 out of 4 of the traps were tucked away nicely out of the wind.

It didn't take long to get in a muddle with writing the moths down, as they arrived in quick succession, and the interesting and unusual moths were potted up as a priority, quite hard to do when you are getting bombed by so many moths.
There mst have easily been 300 moths per trap plus all of the ones sitting in the grass and you are looking at upwards of 1500 moths.
I ran the traps from 9:30pm until 2:30am where I was absolutely frazzled from tiredness.
Driving home, the car temperature gauge confirmed why it was such a good night, 16 degrees is what it was at 3am!
In total 194 species were recorded over 5 hours.

Big numbers of certain species were 25x Grey Arches, 35x Great Oak Beauty, over 100 Aleimma loeflingiana.

Species of note were 2x Beautiful Carpet (New for me),  Ancylis diminutana, Apotomis capreana, Argyresthia pygmaeella (New for me), Cosmiotes stabilella, Epinotia fraternana (New for me), Euspilapteryx auroguttella, Pseudosciaphila branderiana (New for me) and Scoparia subfusca.

Here is the total list


Macro Moths : 93 species
Micro Moths : 101 species


Total : 194 species


Catch Report - 23/06/19 - Bramfield Park Woods - Hertfordshire - 2x 125w MV Robinson Trap, 1x 250w MV Clear Robinson Trap & 1x 160w Mercury Blended Robinson Trap - 4 traps in total


Macro Moths

Barred Straw
Barred Yellow
Beautiful Carpet [NEW]
Beautiful Hook-tip
Bird's Wing
Blood-vein
Blotched Emerald
Bordered White
Bright-line Brown-eye
Brimstone Moth
Brindled White-spot
Brown Rustic
Brown Silver lines
Buff Ermine
Buff Footman
Buff-tip
Cinnabar
Clay Triple-lines
Clouded Border
Clouded Brindle
Clouded Silver
Common Carpet
Common Emerald
Common Swift
Common Wainscot
Common Wave
Common White Wave
Coronet
Dark Arches
Double Square-spot
Dun-bar
Dusky Brocade
Elephant Hawk-moth
Engrailed
Flame Shoulder
Gold Swift
Great Oak Beauty
Green Carpet
Green Pug
Green Silver-lines
Grey Arches
Heart & Club
Heart & Dart
Ingrailed Clay
Iron Prominent
July Highflyer
Large Nutmeg
Large Yellow Underwing
Leopard Moth
Lesser Yellow Underwing
Light Arches
Light Emerald
Lobster Moth
Marbled Brown
Marbled Minor
Marbled White Spot
Middle-barred Minor
Minor Shoulder-knot
Mottled Beauty
Mottled Pug
Orange Footman
Pale Oak Beauty
Pale Prominent
Peach Blossom
Peacock Moth
Peppered moth 
Poplar Hawk-moth
Poplar Lutestring
Purple Clay
Riband Wave
Rosy Footman
Rufous Minor
Scarce Silver-lines
Scorched wing
Setaceous Hebrew Character
Silver-ground Carpet
Silver-Y
Slender Pug
Small Dotted Buff
Small Fan-foot
Small Fan-footed Wave
Small White Wave
Small Yellow Wave
Smoky Wainscot
Snout
Straw Dot
Tawny Marbled Minor
Tawny-barred Angle
Treble Brown Spot
Uncertain
Vine's Rustic
White Ermine
White-point

Micro Moths

Acleris notana/ferrugana
Acleris schalleriana
Acrobasis repandana
Agapeta hamana
Agonopterix arenella
Aleimma loefligiana
Anania hortulata
Anania lancealis
Ancylis diminutana
Aphelia paleana
Aphomia sociella
Apotomis capreana
Apotomis turbidana
Archips craetagana
Archips podana
Archips xylosteana
Argyresthia brockeella
Argyresthia goedartella
Argyresthia pruniella
Argyresthia pygmaeella [NEW]
Argyresthia retinella
Assara terebrella
Bactra sp
Batia lunaris
Blastobasis lacticolella
Blastodacna hellerella
Caloptilia alchimiella robustella
Carcina quercana
Carpatolechia fugitivella
Celypha cespitana
Celypha lacunana
Chrysoteuchia culmella
Clepsis consimiliana
Cochylis atricapitana
Cochylis nana
Coleophora sp
Cosmiotes stabilella
Crambus lathoniellus
Crambus pascuella
Crassa unitella
Cydia fagiglandana
Cydia pomonella
Ditula angustiorana
Ectoedemia sp
Elophila nymphaeata
Emmetia marginea
Epagoge grotiana
Epermenia falciformis
Ephestia sp
Epinotia bilunana
Epinotia demarniana
Epinotia fraternana [NEW]
Epinotia immundana
Epinotia signatana
Epinotia tedella
Eucosma cana
Eucosma hohenwartiana
Eudonia lacustrata
Euspilapteryx auroguttella
Euzophera pinguis
Exoteleia dodecella
Gypsonoma dealbana
Gypsonoma sociana
Hedya nubiferana
Hedya pruniana
Hedya salicella
Hypsopygia costalis
Lathronympha strigana
Metzneriana metzeriana
Mompha ochraceella
Morophaga choragella
Nemophora deegerella
Notocelia cynosbatella
Notocelia roborana
Notocelia trimaculana
Notocelia uddmanniana
Ostrinia nubilalis
Pammene argyrana
Pandemis cerasana
Pandemis heparana
Parachronistis albiceps
Parornix sp
Phtheochroa inopiana
Phycita roborella
Phyllonorycter coryli
Plutella xylostella
Prays fraxinella
Pseudargyrotoza conwagana
Pseudosciaphila branderiana [NEW]
Ptherochroa inopiana
Rhodophaea formosa
Scoparia ambigualis
Scoparia pyralella
Scoparia subfusca
Spilonota ocellana
Stephensia brunnichella
Syncopacma sp
Teleoides luculella
Teleoides vulgella
Tortrix viridana
Udea olivalis

250w Clear MVRobinson Trap

125w MV Robinson Trap

The trap at 12am

MV Trap at 2am

Acleris notana/ferrugana

Apotomis capreana

Archips crataegana (dark form)

Argyresthia brockeella

Phycita roborella

Argyresthia pygmaeella

Beautiful Carpet

Dusky Brocade

Epermenia falciformis

Epinotia fraternana

Euspilapteryx auroguttella

Exoteleia dodecella

Great Oak Beauty

Scarce Silver-lines

Rosy Footman

Purple Clay

Pseudosciaphila branderiana

Ostrinia nubilalis

Mompha ochraceella

Scoparia subfusca

Slender Pug

Small Dotted Buff

Stephensia brunnichella

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