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, 24 May 2026

Another great catch of moths

A warm day of 28 degrees yesterday and the night held up nicely until after midnight where it went a little damp and cool.
Arriving home at 2.30am from Wicken Fen, I decided to go through the trap and turn it off so I could have a bit of extra sleep. 
The temperature dropped to 14 degrees, still very good for the time of year.
 
As a result there were probably still around 50 species in and around the trap, but I didn't count them all this time as I was too pooped, instead just potting up all the new ones. 

I managed to find 11, but probably missed a few more through tired eyes.

Brown Silver-line was the best moth and only my 2nd garden record after the first last year.

Dog's Tooth was nice to see and in fantastic condition too.

Micros dazzled with a large metallic green Coleophora. Expecting amethystinella, upon checking for the orange eyes, I was pleased to identify it as trifoli (On size and no range eyes). This isn't a common moth here, opposed to the regular alcyonipennella/frishella.

The first migrant Udea ferrugalis also turned up, alongside 3 Ostrinia nubilalis. No massively rare migrant moths but could there be one tonight? Who knows... only the moth gods. 

 

Moth garden list for 2026 stands at 254 species 
 
23/05/26 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap
 
Macro Moths

Brown Silver-line 1 [NFY]
Cabbage Moth 1 [NFY]
Dog's Tooth 1 [NFY]
Miller 1 [NFY]


Micro Moths

Bucculatrix cristatella [NFY]
Coleophora laricella 1 [NFY]
Coleophora trifoli 1 [NFY]
Cydia fagiglandana 1 [NFY]
Hypsopygia costalis 1 [NFY]
Ostrinia nubilalis 3 [NFY]
Udea ferrugalis 1 [NFY]
 
Udea ferrugalis

Brown Silver-line

Bucculatrix cristatella

Coleophora laricella

Coleophora trifolii

Dog's Tooth

Ostrinia nubilalis

 
Posted by Bennyboymothman at 21:39