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

Friday, 11 April 2025

Signs of times changing

From a very cold east breeze to hints of west and even brief southerly air flows, things are slowly turning towards my favour, but it's still very early days.

On Tuesday my boy spotted a small moth fluttering around our shed late afternoon, and it landed! I shouted 'You are quicker than me, grab a pot'. He ran back and returned with practically a jam jar! which was too big and wouldn't sit flush on the wood, so I told him to go and get a glass tube, quickly potted up I could already see what it might be, a regular moth in my old Herts haunt, a potential Mompha jurassicella, and which appears to be not on the county list for Cambs. Dissection will be needed.

Last night I ran my trap all night and things were still rather quiet, but there were some new species peeking from behind the egg trays.
Purple Thorn was the highlight, an uncommon moth here in my garden, the other new species was a fresh Garden Carpet, on the flipside, a very common moth here.
 
The dusk patio forays yielded 5 species including a year first Phyllonorycter blancardella
 
Milder nights are incoming, but nothing truly spectacular yet.

Moth garden list for 2025 stands at 51 species

08/04/25 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap

Micro Moths

Mompha sp (possibly jurassicella) - TBC

10/04/25 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap

Macro Moths

Garden Carpet 1 [NFY]
Purple Thorn 1 [NFY]
Brindled Beauty 5
Clouded Drab 1
Common Quaker 2
Early Grey 2
Hebrew Character 1
Nut-tree Tussock 1

Micro Moths
 
Phyllonorycter blancardella 1 [NFY] (Netted)
Caloptilia rufipennella 1 (Netted) 
Caloptilia semifascia 2 (Netted) 
Lyonetia clerkella 1 (Netted) 
Mompha subbistrigella 1 
 
Purple Thorn

Caloptilia rufipennella

Garden Carpet

Mompha sp

Mompha subbistrigella

Phyllonorycter blancardella

 
Posted by Bennyboymothman at 22:48