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, 5 August 2026

A mini resurgence

Numbers crept up on Friday night here in my garden, on what was to be the last July night of 2026 and what a hot month it had been, carrying on fluidly from the warmer than average June.
Sadly, we still are in desperate need of significant rainfall. 
We've only had a few hours of rain in the past 6 weeks now, and even then it literally ran off and evaporated in the hot July sun that followed. 

I counted around 60 species, which is pretty good for late July here, as we come away from the peak mothing season.

Ancylosis oblitella has had a really successful year, with over 15 records this year alone. In previous years it has only been recorded in 1's and 2's. 

During the days and particularly in the early evening I have had visits from Hummingbird Hawk-moths, I managed an ok photograph of one of them, they a super quick!

There were two welcome new species for the year, a cracker of a Red Underwing and a Flounced Rustic.

The third Striped Hawk-moth of the year was great also, sitting proudly next to the Red Underwing! It was a new species for the garden only this year.

The best of the rest were too boldy marked species, Scrobipalpa atriplicella and a White-line Dart, both showing stronger markings than normal specimens I encounter.

Worth keeping an eye out for Scrobipalpa atriplicella, they can be hard to pick out amongst ocellatella, slightly larger and much more strongly marked and lacking the pale ovals around the ocelli. 

Still warm out there folks...

 

Moth garden list for 2026 stands at 639 species 
 
31/07/26 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap
 
Macro Moths

Flounced Rustic 1 [NFY]
Red Underwing 1 [NFY]

White-line Dart

Ancylosis oblitella

Flounced Rustic

Humming-bird Hawk-moth

Red Underwing

Scrobipalpa atriplicella

Striped Hawk-moth



Posted by Bennyboymothman at 20:30