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

Thursday, 11 June 2026

Despite the weather, they've still got to fly

Sunday night wasn't too bad here, the pick of the nights for at least a week and so the moths responded accordingly.
After all, the moths have to take flight to find a mate and breed, so they really are up against the clock, especially as we are now coming into the peak mothing season here in the UK. 
 
Tuesday night was worrying, just 12 moths and last night I didn't even bother.
 
Back to the 7th and there was quite a bit of interest to the trap early evening and overnight.  
 
It was originally 8 new ones for the year, pretty darn good given how average the conditions had been, but whilst photographing the moths in the garden, my son potted up a few more moths, he added a further 2 new species for the year! A Netted Pug & Light Arches.
 
Pick of the macros was a Delicate, the earliest I've recorded here by a month.
 
The best micro was pine feeding Dioryctria simplicella, a regular moth here but rather scarce nationwide.
 
And that was pretty much it up until now, the 11th! 
 
 
Moth garden list for 2026 stands at 376 species 
 
07/06/26 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap
 
Macro Moths

Delicate 1 [NFY]
Flame 1 [NFY]
L-album Wainscot 1 [NFY]
Light Arches 1 [NFY]
Netted Pug 1 [NFY]
Smoky Wainscot 1 [NFY] 

Micro Moths
 
Archips xylosteana 1 [NFY]
Crambus perlella 1 [NFY]
Dioryctria simplicella 1 [NFY] 
Pandemis cerasana 1 [NFY] 
 
Crambus perlella

Delicate

Dioryctria simplicella

Flame

Netted Pug

Smoky Wainscot

 
 
Posted by Bennyboymothman at 20:22