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, 4 August 2026

A smattering of new moths, a little samey towards the end of July

It's gone a little samey in my garden recently, with only 1 new species on the 29th of July.

Still between 35 and 50 species on the nights I've been running my trap, mainly dominated by Small Mottled Willow and Nutmeg, the latter last night broke through the 100 examples barrier, with 76 alone the night before. 
Small Mottled Willow is the talk of the town recently with a lot of people recording record amounts, with reports of over 1000 last night in Dorset.
Here I've been getting around 20 to 30 peak.  
 
Below are the highlights from last Wednesday.
 
Cacoecimorpha pronubana - The first female I have seen here this year. The males have been prolific from late Spring, and just love the pheromone lure, in fact if I get the bag out of the shed, they'll just appear from nowhere within a few minutes, it must be so impregnated! 
 
Dark Spectacle - Only my 2nd record this year, never a common moth compared to its sister species the Spectacle. 

Nemapogon koenigi - New for year and an annual visitor here, sometimes to the Yellow-legged Clearwing Lure (VES).

The drought continues here in the East. 

 

Moth garden list for 2026 stands at 637 species 
 
29/07/26 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap
 
Micro Moths 
 
Nemapogon koenigi 1 [NFY] 
 
Ypsolopha scabrella

Cacoecimorpha pronubana - Female

Dark Spectacle

Nemapogon koenigi

 
Posted by Bennyboymothman at 20:21