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

Friday 12 August 2022

Beeting the heat, the moth lull

Moths have really tailed off now this past week, with barely any new moths for the year as the end of summer and early autumn lull kicks in (Roughly 2 weeks early).
I've only added one new species for the year over 3 sessions, a Black Arches last night.

I'm currently averaging around 80-100 moths a night, this may sound quite a lot to some people, but when you factor in that 40-60 of them are Scrobipalpa ocellatella, things get a little monotonous!
 
This moth is a Nationally Scarce B species, confined to coastal areas and feeding from Sea Beet, here in East cambs they are quite clearly feeding on something else, Sugar Beet.
There is a field over the road from me, so they are clearly coming from that. I shall take a walk tomorrow and look for evidence of breeding.
To get 57 of them last night at home, and an estimated 400 at Wicken Fen, it's certainly not threatened here!  

My 2nd Angle Shades of the year was my only other highlight this week.

Last night, just 22 species were noted, this was checking the trap before bed and getting up at dawn, extremely poor for early to mid August.
The reason? Drought and heatwave conditions seem to be the number one culprit.
 
Actually the lull has done me a favour somewhat and allowed me to get over covid (finally, after testing 11 days positive).

We are expecting rain for the first part of next week, how much it will be will be interesting to see.
 
 
Moth garden list for 2022 stands at 594 species

Black Arches 1 [NFG] - 11/08/22

Angle Shades

Black Arches


Posted by Bennyboymothman at 20:21

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