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

Sunday, 17 April 2022

Field trip - Cavenham Heath - 14/04/22

On Thursday I pitched up at Cavenham Heath, after getting permission to run some traps there.
 
A debut at a new site after a warm day, my hopes were sky high.

It had been another warm day of nearly 20 degrees, muggy and it felt like it was going to be a 'good' night!
All set up and ready with the net, 3 lights on and after a fair walk lugging the equipment it was lights on, and o.... where are the moths?
The bright moon was out, but it was mostly obscured by high-level cloud during the time that I was there. The temperature seemed good? Until I got back to the car at 11pm and realised that it had dropped to 7 degrees, still not abysmal I thought.
But there was just not much flying, and by 11:30pm I had packed up and given up.

A similar story was echoed in other Counties on the same night, Colin Plant reported that he did not get a single moth over several hours to his flagship 125w MV Robinson Trap.

But, I can't really moan as I was lucky to get my first Narrow-winged Pug's (2 of them) and a single stunning Eriocrania sparrmannella. A tiny Stigmella was also potted and owing to so much Birch onsite, is probably lapponica (Kept for verification).
A huge Great Prominent girlie was also great to see, and she laid me some eggs for my son and I to rear, which is great.
The most numerous moths were Scalloped Hook-tip (10) & Nut-tree Tussock (8)

I shall be back, as this site looks absolutely incredible.

14/04/22 - Cavenham Heath - Suffolk - 3 traps, 160w MBT Trap, 125w Mercury Robinson Trap and Actinic Trap


Macro Moths

Common Quaker 3
Double-striped Pug 3
Early Tooth-striped 4
Engrailed 1
Great Prominent 1
Lunar Marbled Brown 1
March Moth 1
Narrow-winged Pug 2
Nut-tree Tussock 8
Pale Pinion 1
Satellite 1
Scalloped Hook-tip 10

Micro Moths 

Agonopterix alstromeriana
Agonopterix arenella 1
Dyseriocrania subpurpurella 5
Eriocrania sparrmannella (prob) 2
Neofaculta ericetella 1
Parornix sp 1
Stigmella lapponica (prob) 1

125w MV Robinson Trap

Actinic Trap amongst Birch

Heather & Birch

Early Tooth-striped

Eriocrania sparrmannella

Great Prominent

Narrow-winged Pug

Narrow-winged Pug

Neofaculta ericetella

Pale Pinion


Stigmella lapponica


Posted by Bennyboymothman at 20:47