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

Saturday, 27 August 2022

Double post with some real quality

I trapped on Monday night and again on Wednesday night here in my garden.
Wednesday night was particularly warm, Tuesday was as well, but I was too frazzled after a field trip to a new woodland to bother at home on that night.
These two catches were from summers last reprise, with Wednesday boasting 30 degrees once more.

Then Thursday morning, ensued a complete breakdown with thunder, lightning and flash floods to a point where roads were impassable in the town that I work.
Today there was a bit of an unexpected rise in temperature, a good 5 degrees warmer than what they forecast (21 degrees).

Some really good moths amongst the winners of the current season.
 
Below is a round-up of the highlights over the two nights.
 
Moth garden list for 2022 stands at 616 species
 
22/08/22 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap

Agapeta zoegana - I've seen a fair few Agapeta hamana here over the last year, but the prettier of the pair had up until now, eluded me. So it was nice to add it to the garden list.
 
Barred Hook-tip - This completes the trio of common garden 'Hook-tips' with possibly Scalloped to add in the near future?  
 
Centre-barred Sallow - A year first followed by another on the 24th, nice and fresh and bright. Generally the first Sallow species on the wing, although 'The Sallow' is getting earlier!
 
Hellinsia lienigianus - Easily moth of the month, a new moth is always exciting but to get a new Plume is pretty special as a lot are extremely local, hard to find and difficult to identify. The common name is the Mugwort Plume. There are only a handful of records for Cambridgeshire.
 
24/08/22 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap
 
Acleris sparsana - An absolutely button bright example on Wednesday night, also one of my earliest records.

Ancylosis oblitella - Another brilliant species to pop on the ever growing garden list. This is a predominantly a salt-marsh species confined to the east, south-east and south coast. It occasionally wanders inland, this being my third example in 17 years and in much better condition than the previous ones.
 
Agapeta zoegana

Barred Hook-tip

Centre-barred Sallow

Hellinsia lienigianus

Acleris sparsana

Ancylosis oblitella

Oak Hook-tip


Posted by Bennyboymothman at 19:32