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, 18 July 2025

New species fining down a bit?

Still fairly busy as we headed into the middle of July here in my garden, though less variety was noticeable and infact the catch felt almost August in feeling with lots of Dusky Thorns and Mouse Moths.

Bucculatrix thoracella returned after a 3 year hiatus, in all fairness being so small, these micros often get missed. 

Another Gelechia scotinella was very welcome. Formerely a very rare species, it seems to be doing quite well locally in east cambs. 

From the larger moth front, an absolutely cracking male Oak Eggar really blew me away, it was also so fresh. The most noteworthy part about it, was that the last time I saw a male, was in 2006! My debut full mothing year, whereby I took a photo of it next to two females.

A dark Scrobipalpa species was retained, which will probably turn out to be a dark ocellatella.

The warm weather continued but whilst numbers remained high, species were dwindling. 

Moth garden list for 2025 stands at 554 species

11/07/25 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap

Macro Moths

Yellow-tail 1 [NFY]

Micro Moths

Bucculatrix thoracella 1 [NFY]
Carpatolechia fugivitella 1 [NFY]
Scrobipalpa sp 1 (TBC)

Yellow-tail

Bucculatrix thoracella

Gelechia scotinella

Oak Eggar Male

Scrobipalpa sp

 

 

Posted by Bennyboymothman at 21:21