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, 9 September 2026

Latest from the garden moth trap

A warmer day on Saturday night, followed by a rather chilly start to Sunday, so numbers weren't great.

New ones are really struggling now, but at least on this occasion there was still one new species, the micro Aethes smeathmanniana.

A second Vestal in a week was notewoorthy, a similar brown example, in fact I had to check to see if it wasn't just a recapture, lucky not the case.

A lateish Light Emerald was nice, especially as it seemed to be sporting a red fringe, something that I have never seen in this species before!
The return of a Mottled Rustic was good to see, a species that was once a really common moth, not so much these days.

A slightly a-typical Square-spot Rustic was worth a quick snap of.

Not much to report lately.

 
Moth garden list for 2026 stands at 681 species 
 
05/09/26 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap

Micro Moths

Aethes smeathmanniana 1 [NFY]

Vestal

Aethes smeathmanniana

Light Emerald

Mottled Rustic

Square-spot Rustic

 

Posted by Bennyboymothman at 20:10