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, 16 June 2024

An improvement in species, but not in numbers

The temperature must not be quite good enough for the moths yet, in fact I saw my first Butterfly for nearly a week this afternoon, just the one Small Tortoiseshell.
 
Generally in June, a good catch is between 100 and 150 moths of 50 to 70 species here in my garden. So far a 'good' catch has been 60 moths of 40 species.
Time and data analysis will tell if this is an anomaly or a worrying trend. 

Last night did include some quality though, I mean what's better than one Broad-barred White, two of them! An event that has never happened anywhere for me. 

Other highlights included a beauty of a Marbled Coronet, the first Cloaked Minor of the season, and a really odd Dark Arches, two-tone in appearance.
 
A Coleophora species was retained, quite a large one.

Long range weather models suggest it might finally get warmer... I won't hold them to it just yet though.
 
Moth garden list for 2024 stands at 301 species
 
15/06/24 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap
 
Broad-barred White 2 [NFY]
Cloaked Minor 1 [NFY]
Marbled Coronet 1 [NFY]
Barred Straw 1
Beautiful Hook-tip 1
Brimstone Moth 1
Buff-tip 2
Common Footman 1
Elephant Hawk-moth 1
Figure of Eighty 1
Garden Carpet 1
Heart & Club 1
Heart & Dart 3
Large Nutmeg 1
Large Yellow Underwing 1
Light Emerald 1
Marbled Minor 3
Nutmeg 2
Orange Footman 1
Pale Oak Beauty 1
Peppered Moth 1
Setaceous Hebrew Character 1
Shears 1
Small Elephant Hawk-moth 2
Swallow Prominent 4
Vine's Rustic 1
White-point 1
Willow Beauty 2

Micro Moths 

Anania hortulata 1
Aphomia sociella 1
Celypha lacunana 1
Celypha striana 1
Cochylis atricapitana 1
Coleophora sp 1 tbc
Chrysoteuchia culmella 4
Cnephasia sp 3
Crambus lathoniellus 2
Evergestis limbata 1
Phtheochroa Rugosana 1
Scoparia ambigualis 1

Broad-barred White

Cloaked Minor

Coleophora sp

Dark Arches

Marbled Coronet


Posted by Bennyboymothman at 20:27