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
Contact Email : bensale@rocketmail.com

My Latest Notables and Rarities

Thursday, 10 April 2014

Hexton Chalk Pit Field Trip report - 09/04/14


Last night I was joined by Colin Plant and Roger Prue at Hexton Chalk Pit in probably the most North-westerly part of Hertfordshire as we could get, Bedfordshire was literally just over the road.

We of course were in search of Northern Drab and trying to add another site for this rare moth (Having previously been caught the night before on chalk downland..I was hopeful)
But to cut a long story short we didn't find it.
Conditions were perfect, calm cloudy and mild for about an hour after dusk then it noticeably got a lot cooler and coats were zipped up and hats adorned! The sky still stayed thick with cloud.
At about 11.30pm the sky cleared and it was time to start packing up.

Not a huge amount of moths but a nice variety nevertheless with the bulk of the catch made up of Common Quaker's and Hebrew Character's. 
10 examples of Red Chestnut were also nice to see, one that I haven't had in the garden yet.

 The micro's were where the interest was with 2 Agonopterix pallorella's turning up near the end of the session, an over-wintering Agonopterix and were actually last seen in the County at this very site...13 years ago in 2001.
No doubt there may have been a few more records since? But I will have to enquire.

 Another little micro that was new for the year was Scrobipalpa acuminatella, which was narrowed down to the early flight season, it was so fresh and very shiny. 

 All in all a lovely site, quite compact and easy to set-up traps once you have traversed the 45 degree climb into the pit!


Catch Report - Hexton Chalk Pit - 09/04/14 - 2x 125w MV Robinson Trap, 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap and 1x 80w Actinic Trap

 Lights run from 8.00pm until 12.00am

Macro Moths

28x Common Quaker
2x Double-striped Pug
2x Water Carpet
14x Hebrew Character
2x Purple Thorn
4x Nut-tree Tussock
10x Red Chestnut
1x Early Thorn
1x Waved Umber
5x Clouded Drab
1x Small Quaker
1x Chestnut

Micro Moths

1x Agonopterix pallorella [NEW!]
1x Scrobipalpa acuminatella
1x Agonopterix alstromeriana

1x Mompha subbistrigella














Agonopterix pallorella













Nut-tree Tussock










Scrobipalpa acuminatella


Posted by Bennyboymothman at 20:39

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