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

Saturday, 8 November 2025

A warm spell heralds some migrants!

Trap was back out last week, and on Wednesday with highs of a dizzy 17 degrees, the night looked very promising indeed, despite the odd gusty moment.

24 species was a really good return for my garden in early November, with 3 new species for the year.

Highlight undoubtedly was a Vestal, a brown form and not a form i've seen for many years now.

The other two new ones were a rather plain looking Mottled Umber (Which I double-took for a Scarce intitally), and a smart Cosmopterix pulchrimella, a micro that seems to be on the increase locally, i've since had a second one in recent nights.

A couple more good mothing nights were on the cards as we headed towards the weekend. 

Moth garden list for 2025 stands at 672 species

05/11/25 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap
 
Macro Moths 
 
Mottled Umber 1 [NFY]
Vestal 1 [NFY]
Black Rustic 2
Brick 1
Cypress Carpet 1
Dark Arches 1
Dark Sword-grass 1
Feathered Thorn 1
Garden Carpet 1
Green-brindled Crescent 2
Least Carpet 3
November Moth sp 5
Red-green Carpet 1
Sprawler 4
Turnip Moth 1
White-point 4 
 
Micro Moths 
 
Cosmopterix pulchrimella 1 [NFY]
Agonopterix alstromeriana 1
Alucita hexadactyla 1
Elachista canapennella 1
Epiphyas postvittana 5
Phyllonorycter messaniella 3
Scrobipalpa ocellatella 1 
 
Vestal

Cosmopterix pulchrimella

Cypress Carpet

Least Carpet

Mottled Umber

 
Posted by Bennyboymothman at 16:03