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

Saturday 23 May 2020

An explosion of new moths

Quite literally... the trap was heaving this morning in my garden trap, not oodles of moths but certainly more than enough interest to go reaching for the pots.
It's been hard to photograph the moths, as it's been so warm and humid. Some will literally start running around the pots seconds after getting them out of the fridge, so pot shots will have to do with some species.
It was nice to get a few pine feeding species, quite often these turn up on muggy nights and last night was very warm indeed, no lower than 14 degrees.

Macro highlights were my annual Miller and a 2nd garden record of the Seraphim, and what a belting form it was.
The micros really were out in force with 12 new for year species!

I've got one un-identified moth that i'm sure isn't a Caloptilia species, it resembles Batrachedra pinicolella, but will need dissecting to confirm as it's worn unfortunately. The legs and antennae just don't look right for Caloptilia...we shall see!


Garden species count for 2020 now upto 145.

85 moths of 38 species to 250w MV Robinson Trap min 14c at 5:00am 

Catch Report - 20/05/20 - Back Garden - Stevenage - North Herts   

Macro Moths

Common Swift 1 [NFY]
Dwarf Pug 1 [NFY]
Miller 1 [NFY]
Silver-ground Carpet 2 [NFY]
Willow Beauty 3 [NFY]
Yellow Shell 1 [NFY]
Common Marbled Carpet 1
Common Wainscot 2
Treble Lines 2
Brimstone Moth 5
Buff-tip 1
Common Pug 2
Garden Carpet 1
Heart & Dart 11
Large Nutmeg 3
Least Black Arches 1
Pale Mottled Willow 1
Pale Tussock 3
Rustic Shoulder-knot 3
Seraphim 1
Shuttle-shaped Dart 12
Spruce Carpet 1
Vine's Rustic 2


Micro Moths

Anania hortulata 1 [NFY]

Bucculatrix nigricomella 1 [NFY]
Caloptilia alchimiella/robustella 1 [NFY]
Cedestis subfasciella 1 [NFY]
Celypha lacunana 1 [NFY]
Epinotia bilunana 1 [NFY]

Gracillaria syringella 1 [NFY]
Hofmannophila pseudospretella 1 [NFY]
Mompha epilobiella 1 [NFY]
Prays fraxinella 1 [NFY]
Ptycholoma lecheana 1 [NFY]
Rhyacionia pinivorana 2 [NFY]
Argyresthia trifasciata 3
Epiphyas postvittana 7
Tachystola acroxantha 1


Cedestis subfasciella

Anania hortulata

Epinotia bilunana

Gracillaria syringella

Miller

Rhyacionia pinivorana

Seraphim

Yellow Shell

No comments:

Post a Comment