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

Tuesday, 14 September 2021

A new Plume! - Garden Trapping - Fordham - Cambridgeshire - 09/09/21

Last Thursday, with a high of 21 degrees and fair, it was all about the overnight conditions with temperatures holding in mid-double digits.
By 6am it was still 15.5c degrees on the car as I left for work.

Another collection of new garden species despite the late date.

Notables were second garden records of Blue Underwing, Evergestis limbata and Cochylidia implicitana!
Pick of the Macro Moths was a Lunar Yellow Underwing, a few more in-between then and now also.

But the best moth of the night was a Plume, and one of the Oxyptilus species which turned out to be distans (Thanks go to Graeme Smith for taking the time to check the texts that I don't have and doing a nifty drawing).

I know it's in the area, as Leslie Gardiner trapped one a few days up the road from me. 
The common name is Breckland Plume.
 
Below are the new species for the year.

Moth garden list stands at 157 species.

09/09/21 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap
 
Macro Moths
 
Engrailed 1 [NFG]
Lunar Yellow Underwing 2 [NFG]
Small Blood-vein 1 [NFG]
Small Square-spot 1 [NFG]
 
Micro Moths
 
Agapeta hamana 1 [NFG]
Oxypteryx atrella 1 [NFG]
Oxyptilus distans 1 [NEW]
 
Blue Underwing

Oxyptilus distans (top) laetus (bottom)

Graeme's Drawing

Lunar Yellow Underwing

Oxypteryx atrella

Small Square-spot

Oxyptilus distans

 
 
Posted by Bennyboymothman at 20:41