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, 27 July 2025

Super set of moths!

With highs of around 31 degrees on the 18th and lows not dropping below 20 degrees, the trap was back to it's busiest self, and with a catch of 92 species, for mid/late July it was my biggest catch at this time of year.

It was headed by some top quality moths including a brand new moth for my records, a stunning Dark Crimson Underwing, the third Catocala species to grace my garden trap (Red & Blue being the other two).

There were a further 3 new garden moths present, July Highflyer (unvbelievably), True Lover's Knot & Scythris limbella. 

Everyone seems to be getting Ancylosis oblitella & Moitrelia obductella lately in their moth traps, I was lucky to get two of the former here, with just two previous records.
The latter will have to wait it seems, a moth highly on my wants list.
 
Twin-spotted Wainscot returned having not been seen since 2022, and it brought a friend along. To get two in one night seems exceptional for here. 
 
Those 4 new ones take me to 907 recorded species in my garden since August 28th 2021.

Moth garden list for 2025 stands at 583 species

18/07/25 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap

Macro Moths

Currant Pug 1 [NFY]
Dark Crimson Underwing 1 [NFG]
July Highflyer 1 [NFG]
Large Emerald 2 [NFY]
Least Yellow Underwing 2 [NFY]
True Lover's Knot 1 [NFG]
Twin-spotted Wainscot 2 [NFY]

Micro Moths 

Ancylosis oblitella 2 [NFY]
Parectopa ononidis 1 [NFY]
Scythris limbella 2 [NFG]

Twin-spotted Wainscot

A busy trap

Ancylosis oblitella

Ancylosis oblitella

Dark Crimson Underwing

July Highflyer

Large Emerald

Least Yellow Underwing

Parectopa ononidis

Scythris limbella

True Lover's Knot

 

Posted by Bennyboymothman at 20:47