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

Tuesday, 7 July 2026

July starts, another hot month on the cards?

Well July is typically warmer than June, so we will see!
 
It certainly has started very warm here in the east, with most days above 25 degrees, in fact some days touching the high twenties and this week we are into the 30's again!
 
Last Wednesday it was another really good catch (This is slowly getting boring to type the same thing). 
It is absolutely crazy to have been recording moths for 20 years, and having never experienced such high overnight temperatures for so long.
 
A further 2 new for garden species were found.
 
The first certainly blew me away, as I went out to check the trap and surrounding egg trays, I was astounded by this huge brown moth, only eclipsed in wing length by a Privet Hawk-moth, a huge female Lappet! 
By the looks of it, she had only just arrived, so I raced indoors for a big enough pot and my phone to take an in situ shot.
 
The second species was an equally impressive county first Depressaria species. These are a tricky bunch to differentiate and so it will need to be dissected to tell whether it is douglasella or pulcherrimella, either way there are currently no county records for either! 
I'm favouring douglasella, and hoping it is as I have taken pulcherrimella in France before.
 
There were also two new for year Pug species and a stunning tiny Acrocercops brongniardella, which was very hard to photograph in the heat!
 
By day, two Pammene aurita were attracted to the TAB lure (They often favour the LUN lure I've found).
 
More warm weather coming up.
 
 
Moth garden list for 2026 stands at 566 species 
 
01/07/26 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap
 
Macro Moths
  
Lappet 1 [NFG]
Maple Pug 1 [NFY] 
Slender Pug 1 [NFY] 
 
Micro Moths

Acrocercops brongniardella 1 [NFY]
Cochylidia heydeniana 1 [NFY] 
Depressaria douglasella/pulcherrimella 1 [NFG] 
Pammene aurita 2 [NFY] 
 
Acrocercops brongniardella

Cochylidia heydeniana

Depressaria douglasella/pulcherrimella

Dichrorampha alpinana/flavidorsana

Garden Moth Trap

Lappet

Maple Pug

Monochroa lucidella

Pammene aurita

Slender Pug

 
Posted by Bennyboymothman at 21:27