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

Sunday 10 December 2023

Back to the trap

It has seemed like ages since I last ran my trap, November the 22nd to be precise, where I managed just one Mottled Umber.

We then had a week of frosts and then a week of unsettled cool and windy conditions with flash floods, far from ideal mothing conditions.

The end of last week saw a rise in daytime temperatures and also by night as well, with highs of 12 degrees on Friday and not dipping below 9c all night, a bit breezy mind, but the moths didn't mind the SW breeze and I recorded 10 moths of 4 species, finally catching up with a much needed December Moth tick, 3 of them at once!

It was also great to see the first dainty Winter Moths of the year and a pair of cracking Chestnuts, one dark on the 8th and a pale Chestnut last night, the only moth before I switched off because of the gale.

I did also notice a few Caddis-flies last night and the strking ichneomon wasp, Amblyteles armatorius.
It's the latest i've ever seen a wasp of this kind.

I think that might be it for this year now, species wise, not far shy of last years 665 species total, so i'm very pleased.


Moth garden list for 2023 stands at 643 species
 
08/12/23 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap

Macro Moths
 

December Moth 3 [NFY]
Winter Moth 4 [NFY]
Dark Chestnut 1
Mottled Umber 2

09/12/23 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap

Macro Moths
 
Chestnut 1
December Moth 1 

Amblyteles armatorius

Chestnut & Dark Chestnut

Chestnut

Dark Chestnut

December Moth

Winter Moth 1

Winter Moth 2


Posted by Bennyboymothman at 15:23

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