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, 1 July 2026

2026 - The year that will go down in mean temperature history

The temperature at night has been consistently good for as long as I can remember, maybe 2 months now? 

Generally, even in the warmer months you get the odd cool and miserable night where trapping just isn't worth the effort.
I have had the odd night off here and there due to either commitments or sheer tiredness, but it really has been so good with warm temperatures, that the moths have been rather relentless at times.
 
Numbers wise, only a few certain species have done really well. Currently they are the Yponomeuta group, Endotricha flammealis, Common Footman, Leopard Moth and Least Carpet.
 
Least Carpet most nights recently, have numbered into the 3 figure mark with a peak of 129 over the weekend.
 
It certainly was a night of aggs as we refer to them, not aggs as in 'aggravation' or even 'agg' as they commonly said on TOWIE.
 
Aggregate - A moth species that is lumped together due to the necessity for dissection to separate to species level.
 
There were 3 that fell into that category, but until I either get serious and/or have time to dissect them, then they will stay as aggregates.  
 
Aside from those quandaries, there were lots and lots of other moths that I could put a name to, in fact 17 new species for the year was rather more than I was expecting amongst 80 species in total.   
 
The warmth continued. 

Moth garden list for 2026 stands at 542 species 
 
27/06/26 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap
 
Macro Moths
  
Common Wave 1 [NFY]
Common Rustic 1 [NFY]
Dusky Sallow 1 [NFY] 
Large Twin-spot Carpet 1 [NFY] 
Slender Brindle 1 [NFY] 
Small Ranunculus 1 [NFY] 
White-line Dart 1 [NFY] 

Micro Moths

Aethes tesserana 1 [NFY]
Anacampsis blattariella/populella 1 [NFY]
Aproaerema larseniella/cinctella 1 [NFY] 
Batrachedra pinicolella/confusella 1 [NFY]
Bryotropha senectella 1 [NFY]
Cnephasia longana 1 [NFY] 
Crombrugghia distans 1 [NFY] 
Gelechia senticetella 1 [NFY] 
Scoparia subfusca 1 [NFY] 
Scythris limbella 1 [NFY] 
 
Common Wave & Common White Wave

Gelechia senticetella

Scoparia subfusca

Scythris limbella

Small Ranunculus

White-line Dart

Aethes tesserana

Bryotropha senectella

Caloptilia honoratella

 
Posted by Bennyboymothman at 21:37