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

Monday 1 July 2024

Biggest Garden Catch Ever!

Biggest Garden Catch Ever with 123 species recorded to my actinic trap, a record.
 
Like a lot of people, Wednesday night was a very busy one, after highs of 29 degrees here in the east, the night didn't drop below 17 degrees, cloudy and with little breeze it was incredible for moths.
 
I went to the trouble of counting all the moths of all the species, staying up until half midnight, and then rising at 4am, sleep had to wait, well at least until after this manic night.
 
As you can see on the list below, most species were represented by 1's and 2's, but the diversity was exceptional and I very nearly ran out of glass tubes!

20 new for the year species were added, taking me well over the 400 species mark for the year, what's more, two species were completely new for the garden, Evergestis extimalis a moth I last saw in 2013! and the lovely dark and chequered Pandemis dumetana, very similar to other Pandemis species.

Other highlights were the gorgeous Scarlet Tiger, a really dark Gelechia senticetella and Caloptilia cuculipennella.

 
Moth garden list for 2024 stands at 412 species
 
26/06/24 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap
 

Macro Moths

Brown Scallop 1 [NFY]
Clay 1 [NFY]
Fan-foot 2 [NFY]
Scarlet Tiger 1 [NFY]
Small Emerald 1 [NFY]
Vapourer Moth 1 [NFY]
Barred Straw 1
Barred Yellow 1
Blackneck 1
Blue-bordered Carpet 1
Brimstone Moth 2
Broad-barred White 1
Chinese Character 1
Cinnabar 1
Cloaked Minor 2
Clouded Silver 1
Common Carpet 1
Common Emerald 1
Common Footman 3
Common Pug 1
Common Wainscot 1
Coronet 3
Cypress Carpet 2
Dark Arches 1
Double-striped Pug 3
Double Square-spot 1
Dwarf Cream Wave 1
Early Thorn
Elephant Hawk-moth 5
Figure of Eighty 1
Freyer's Pug 1
Garden Carpet 4
Green Pug 2
Heart & Club 6
Heart & Dart 7
Large Yellow Underwing 3
Lesser Yellow Underwing 1
Leopard Moth 5
Light Arches 1
Lychnis 1
Marbled Clover 1
Marbled Minor 3
Miller 1
Mottled Beauty 1
Mottled Rustic 1
Peppered Moth 9
Pine Hawk-moth 1
Poplar Grey 8
Privet Hawk-moth 1
Riband Wave 10
Scarce Footman 1
Scorched Wing 1
Setaceous Hebrew Character 1
Shark 1
Small Dusty Wave 2
Small Elephant Hawk-moth 1
Small Rivulet 1
Snout 1
Spectacle 1
Straw Dot 2
Swallow Prominent 1
Swallow-tailed Moth 2
Sycamore 2
Tawny Marbled Minor 1
Treble Brown Spot 2
Turnip Moth 1
Uncertain 2
V-pug 1
Willow Beauty 5
Wormwood Pug 1
Yellow Shell 2

Micro Moths
Batia lunaris 1 [NFY]
Caloptilia cuculipennella 1 [NFY]
Cosmopterix scribaiella 1 [NFY]
Eucosma hohenwartiana 1 [NFY]
Evergestis extimalis 1 [NFG]
Gelechia senticetella 1 [NFY]
Hypsopygia glaucinalis 1 [NFY]
Marasmarcha lunaedactyla 1 [NFY]
Pandemis dumetana 1 [NFG]
Phycita roborella 1 [NFY]
Pterophorus pentadactyla 1 [NFY]
Rhyacionia pinicolana 1 [NFY]
Tinea columbariella 1 [NFY]
Yponomeuta cag/mal/pad 1 [NFY]
Acentria emphemerella 3
Aethes beatricella 1
Agapeta hamana 1
Aleimma loeflingiana 1
Anania coronata 1
Anania hortulata 1
Ancylis achatana 2
Aphomia sociella 4
Archips podana 1
Archips xylosteana 1
Blastobasis lacticolella 1
Blastodacna hellerella
Bryotropha terrella 1
Celypha lacunana 1
Celypha striana 1
Chrysoteuchia culmella 3
Clepsis consimilana 1
Cnephasia sp 1
Colophora sp 2
Crambus lathoniellus 1
Crambus pascuella 2
Crambus perlella 1
Crassa unitella 2
Dichrorampha petiverella 1
Ditula angustiorana 1
Elachista maculicerusella 1
Endothenia gentianaeana/marginana 1
Ephestia sp 2
Epiphyas postvittana 1
Eudonia lacustrata 3
Hedya pruniana 2
Hofmannophila pseudospretella 1
Parapoynx stratiotata 1
Paraswammerdamia albicapitella 1
Phycitodes binaevella 1
Spilonota ocellana 1
Tortrix viridana 1
Yponomeuta evonynella 1

Batia lunaris

Brown Scallop

Caloptilia cuculipennella

Clay

Eucosma hohenwartiana

Evergestis extimalis

Fan-foot

Gelechia senticetella

Marasmarcha lunaedactyla

Pandemis dumetana

Scarlet Tiger

Small Emerald

Tinea columbariella


No comments:

Post a Comment