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

Friday, 10 July 2026

A new micro!

Monday was another warm day of 30 degrees, although feeling slightly less humid than the week before, it was still blooming sticky whilst working out in it.

An increase in species, but no time to count numbers or every species, as it is far too time consuming fitting it around everything else. Needless to say there were scores of moths, and some very good species were potted up, and photographed the following evening.

Pempelia genistella was a new micro moth species for the garden, a moth I first encountered back in 2021, when I used to run a small actinic trap at where I worked in Bishop's Stortford. The find at the time was the 3rd county record.
there are 4 previous Cambridgeshire records, so still quite a scarce moth.
The second good moth of the night was an Olive. A rather nomadic species that turns up infrequently. I've had two this year so far, the first was out in the woods. I had to check my garden specimen with the one I trapped a week ago, just in case I have caught the same one! Luckily the markings are different.
It is only my 2nd garden record, last seen in 2022. 

Only new species for the year listed below. 

Moth garden list for 2026 stands at 587 species 
 
06/07/26 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap
 
Macro Moths
  
Marbled Beauty 1 [NFY]
Olive 1 [NFY] 
 
Micro Moths

Cydia splendana 1 [NFY]
Pempelia genistella 1 [NFG] 
Pseudargyrotoza conwagana 1 [NFY] 
 
Pseudargyrotoza conwagana

Cydia splendana

Eudemis profundana

Marbled Beauty

Olive

Pempelia genistella

 
Posted by Bennyboymothman at 20:53