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

Tuesday, 1 July 2025

No signs of slowing down

Absolutely crazy mothing conditions that we've had for the past 2 weeks or so, it's still very hard to catch up.
Most nights i'm averaging between 70 and 100 species, a couple of times i've gone over the 100sp mark, a rare occurence in my garden up until this year! 
 
Last Saturday was another high 20's day and lows of 16 degrees. It was however rather blustery at times and with thick dark clouds, there posed a sharp downpour threat (Which never materialised). 
 
I was also out on the same night to a chalk pit in North Hertfordshire, where we had a light rain shower at dusk.
 
Pick of the moths in the garden were a large female Archips crataegana (The Brown Oak Tortrix), fresh Scalloped Oak, Large Twin-spot Carpet & White-line Dart and a rather sad looking year first Tawny Wave.
Best moth of the night, and amongst 20 or so Riband Wave, was a garden first Plain Wave. 
 
A pale Phyllonorycter species was retained. 
 
Warm warm warm...a constant exhausting theme but by jolly the moths are good, still need some rain though... 

Moth garden list for 2025 stands at 455 species

21/06/25 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap

Macro Moths

Dun-bar 1 [NFY]
Large Twin-spot Carpet 1 [NFY]
Plain Wave 1 [NFG]
Scalloped Oak 1 [NFY]
Tawny Wave 1 [NFY]
White-line Dart 1 [NFY]

Micro Moths

Archips crataegana 1 [NFY]
Hedya salicella 1 [NFY]
Lobesia abscisana 1 [NFY]

White-line Dart

Archips crataegana

Dun-bar

Gypsonoma dealbana

Hedya salicella

Large Twin-spot Carpet

Lobesia abscisana

Plain Wave

Scalloped Oak

Tawny Wave

 

Posted by Bennyboymothman at 11:07