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, 15 September 2026

A couple of September catches

The start of September has been mixed here. Numbers have fallen off a cliff but species remain quite diverse, and I definitely would rather it that way round!
There are reports of people catching hundreds, even thousands of Large Yellow Underwing, not here! 
The most I have recorded recently in one sitting was 7! usually averaging around 5 a night currently.
 
Big winners are Square-spot Rustic (10+) Centre-barred Sallow (10+) and Small Mottled Willow (15+) these are averages on most nights.
 
On Wednesday the 9th, Ypsolopha alpella was top moth, a new one for the year and last seen 3 years ago. It is only my second garden record, about as rare as it's sister sylvella.
 
A late Beautiful Hook-tip was one of 3 caught on the night, a September regular these days.
 
Last Friday I tried again, and was rewarded with some nice variety of micros, with 2nd broods of two Archips species (rosana & podana, both females) and one I rarely see past June, Scrobipalpa acuminatella.
 
Some welcome Frosted Oranges turned up, they are having a good year here locally, with 8 to 2 traps out last night, unprecedented numbers compared with previous years.  
 
The next outing wouldn't be until the 13th, and after some rather wet days and nights, the garden trap delivered once more with not one but two rarities.. both new for the garden! 
 
Moth garden list for 2026 stands at 682 species 
 
09/09/26 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap

Macro Moths

Beautiful Hook-tip 3 

Macro Moths

Ypsolopha alpella 1 [NFY]

 

11/09/26 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap

Macro Moths

Frosted Orange 4
L-album Wainscot 1 

Macro Moths

Archips podana 1
Archips rosana 1 
Scrobipalpa acuminatella 1 

Ypsolopha alpella

Beautiful Hook-tip

Frosted Orange

Archips rosana

Archips podana

Scrobipalpa acuminatella

Posted by Bennyboymothman at 21:06