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, 13 December 2025

A few catches from the end of November and into December

I haven't had much intent of posting lately as moths take a back seat, but I continue to put work in behind the scenes, with updating data, editing photos, writing notes and preparing for the new season, and also what I need to fix/buy. Priority will be an oil change for the generator.
Batteries are still nowhere near what I require to be out in the field all night, I can run a couple of low wattage traps from my large powerpack, but when running multiple 125w to 250w traps, a generator is the only way. 
 
Below are the recent catches, nothing to write home about, but one of my latest Dark Arches on the 27th of November was worth scribbling down, and season firsts of both Black-spotted Chestnut and Winter Moth were worth running the trap for on Monday night.
 
Will there be any other worthy windows of opportunity coming up to trap? I will keep an eye half open.

Moth garden list for 2025 stands at 675 species

27/11/25 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap
 
Macro Moths 
 
Black-spotted Chestnut 1 
Dark Arches 1 
December Moth 1 
Mottled Umber 1 
 
Micro Moths 
 
Blastobasis lacticolella 2 
Epiphyas postvittana 2 
Nomophila noctuella 1
Plutella xylostella 1 
 
 
06/12/25 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap
 
Macro Moths 
 
Setaceous Hebrew Character 1 
 
 
08/12/25 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap
 
Macro Moths 
 
Mottled Umber 1
Winter Moth 1 
 
Micro Moths 
 
Blastobasis lacticolella 1 
Emmelina monodactyla 1
Epiphyas postvittana 1 
 
 
 
Winter Moth

Mottled Umber

 
 
Dark Arches


Black-spotted Chestnut



Posted by Bennyboymothman at 15:46