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

Saturday, 13 April 2024

A much better array of moths

More quality last night with 4 new species and 1 found by day on the outside of the bedroom window (Esperia sulphurella of course).
Mild and still at first, but by the time I returned home at midnight, it was once again breezy. The temperature held above 12 degrees all night.
 
Best moths of the night included a nice mint Buttoned Snout, 2 Frosted Greens (One sadly very worse for wear), a worn Epinotia immundana (a shadow of the many fresh examples I recorded on the same night down at the fen), and that funny looking moth with a really looooooong name, Pseudoswammerdamia combinella, with its distinctive coppery termen.
 
I also recorded my first male Emperor to light, well... I say light. It wasn't until I took the lid off of the trap that I realised why he was there, a big fat female was sitting inside, he must have smelt her and decided that he couldn't wait for the daytime.
 
Esperia sulphurella was a chance find, on the bedroom window when I got home from work.

 
Moth garden list for 2024 stands at 75 species
 
11/04/24 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap

Macro Moths
 
Buttoned Snout 1 [NFY]
Frosted Green 2 [NFY]
Angle Shades 1 
Double-striped Pug 3
Emperor Moth 2
Hebrew Character 1
Ruby Tiger 1

Micro Moths

Epinotia immundana 1 [NFY]
Esperia sulphurella 1 [NFY]
Pseudoswammerdamia combinella 1 [NFY]
Alucita hexadactyla 3
Depressaria chaerophylli 1
Emmelina monodactyla 1

Buttoned Snout

Depressaria chaerophylli

Epinotia immundana

Esperia sulphurella

Frosted Green

Pseudoswammerdamia combinella


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