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

Wednesday, 16 July 2025

Waaaarrrrmmm! Busy Trap!

After having a night off on the 9th, it was time to fire up the trap once more. 
 
With highs of 30 degrees and lows of around 21 degrees, the trap, house wall and fences were covered in moths, far too many to list down, so again the focus was on new species or different forms.
 
Excitement during the day was finding two tiny white moths flying around inside my newly deployed Phyllocnistis citrella lure, I ran inside and potted them both up.
After taking photographs of them, it became apparent that they weren't citrella at all, but most probably saligna (Although there are 3 other species they could be, including the newly discovered asiatica).
So the citrella lure will attract other Phyllocnistis species in the genus I guess.
 
Overnight there were two new species of micro moth for the garden, Gynnidomorpha vectisana/minimana (A completely new moth for me and one that needs dissecting to separate) & Mompha sturnipennella (A species I am familiar with from trapping on chalk grassland in Hertfordshire.
 
Those two species make it to the 900 species for the garden milestone. 
 
There were also some other scarce micros in attendance, such as Gypsonoma minutana and Oxypteryx wilkella, the latter not seen since 2022.
 
The first of probably many Jersey Tigers also came to the light overnight.
 
A very good night with a lot of sleep lost! 

Moth garden list for 2025 stands at 551 species

10/07/25 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap

Macro Moths

Canary-shouldered Thorn 1 [NFY]
Jersey Tiger 1 [NFY]
Vapourer Moth 1 [NFY]

Micro Moths

Bactra furfurana 1 [NFY]
Gynnidomorpha vectisana minimana 1 [NFG]
Gypsonoma minutana 1 [NFY]
Limnaecia phragmitella 1 [NFY]
Mompha sturnipennella 1 [NFG]
Oncocera semirubella 1 [NFY]
Oxypteryx wilkella 1 [NFY]
Phyllocnistis sp 2 (TBC)
Ypsolopha scabrella 1 [NFY]

Ypsolopha scabrella

Bactra furfurana

Bucculatrix bechsteinella

Canary-shouldered Thorn

Common Rustic

Garden Dart

Gynnidomorpha vectisana/minimana

Gypsonoma minutana

Jersey Tiger

Mompha sturnipennella

Oxypteryx wilkella

Vapourer Moth



Posted by Bennyboymothman at 21:18