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

Sunday, 30 August 2026

Back from hols and I certainly didn't bring the weather back with me!

Returned from our holiday to the Herault area of the South of France just yesterday, and after leaving temperatures ranging between 29 to 33 degrees, it was a bit of a shock rocking up at Stansted to gloomy weather and much cooler temperatures!

I did some trapping at the Gite whilst I was there and ran a 40w Actinic for 6 nights, some posts coming up soon!

Returning back home I was eager to setup the home trap and see what turns up, after more than a week off from trapping.
Not much change yet it appears! Lots of the usual end of summer fare, all of which have turned up already this year.
With lows of 17 degrees (I've come from lows of between 18c and 23c, so not too dissimilar) it looked like a rather nice and warm night.
And that is where the positives ended... we had rain, a lot of rain and it also chucked it down overnight and my garden was soggy and boggy.
 
There were a good amount of moths though, not being put off by the wet conditions and 47 species were recorded.
 
I didn't think there was anything new amongst it all, but I was wrong. A pretty Beautiful China-mark was potted up this morning in the dark, and is the 674th species for the year.
 
Hopefully a drier (but cooler) night tonight.
 
We'll see. 
 
 
Moth garden list for 2026 stands at 674 species 
 
29/08/26 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap
 

Macro Moths 

Blue Underwing 1
Brimstone Moth 1
Centre-barred Sallow 1
Clouded Border 1
Delicate 1
Flounced Rustic 20
Large Yellow Underwing 1
Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing 1
Lime-speck Pug 2
Orange Swift 10
Pale Mottled Willow 2
Satin Wave 1
Setaceous Hebrew Character 1
Silver Y 1
Small Blood-vein 1
Small Dusty Wave 1
Small Mottled Willow 5
Small Ranunculus 1
Spectacle 1
Straw Underwing 15
Square-spot Rustic 2
Turnip Moth 1
Vine's Rustic 4
White-point 1
Willow Beauty 3
Yellow Shell 1

Micro Moths 

Nymphula nitidulata 1 [NFY]
Acleris rhombana 1
Agriphila geniculea 15
Agriphila inquinatella 1
Agriphila tristella 5
Amblyptilia acanthadactyla 2
Ancylosis oblitella 1
Archips podana 1
Bucculatrix cristatella 1
Celypha striana 1
Cydalima perspectalis 2
Emmelina monodactyla 2
Epiphyas postvittana 3
Evergestis limbata 3
Nomophila noctuella 1
Parapoynx stratiotata 4
Pyrausta aurata 2
Pyralis farinalis 1
Scrobipalpa ocellatella 1
Udea ferrugalis 1
Yponomeuta evonynella 1

Nymphula nitidulata

 

Posted by Bennyboymothman at 15:44