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

Wednesday, 11 June 2014

Recent shenanigans elsewhere...

Hi fellow bloggers.

 I have had many observations recently away from my garden, I thought I would do a brief summary of the last couple of days.

 Sunday saw us visiting my parents in Braughing, on farmland (practically a brownfield site now as it has been closed since 2006, naturally the vegetation has taken over which seems to be a thriving habitat for wildlife)
On the moth front I saw

 100+ Anthophila fabriciana
1x Pammene aurana
12x Celypha lacunana
1x Scrobipalpa acuminatella
Dozens and dozens of Mullein Caterpillars feeding on Jacob's Rod.
At work on Monday I saw

 1x Pammene regiana (not potted quick enough)
3x Cacoecimorpha pronubana

Monday afternoon I noted 2 Nemophora degeerella in the alleyway where our bins are kept.

And on Monday night I visited Hexton Chalk Pit again

 Steve Lings and I were mad enough to be out in it! Thunder and lightning as the sky turned an orangey hue, lights were on for an hour tops, most of the moths we netted at dusk including several Grass Rivulet, Fern, Celypha lacunana, Cochylimorpha straminea, and an unidentified Plume but surprisingly quite a few moths this morning in my car from the trap we didn't empty.

Full list as follows to 2 MV Traps and 1 Car boot - Hexton Chalk Pit - 09/06/14

10x Grass Rivulet
1x Fern
10x Common Swift
1x Grey Pug
2x Marbled White Spot
3x Treble Brown Spot
4x Small Elephant Hawk-moth
1x Silver-ground Carpet
4x Udea olivalis
6x Pseudargyrotoza conwagana
3x Eupoecilia angustana
2x  Celypha lacunana
15x Cochylimorpha straminea
1x Plume (to be id)
1x Epiblema cynosbatella
5x Crambus lathoniellus
5x Scoparia pyralella
1x Tinea semifulvella
1x Archips podana
1x Pammene aurana

Naturally everything is soaked and drying in the garden ready for the next outing.

Eupoecilia angustana










Archips podana









Pammene aurana










Mullein Caterpillars













That Plume...










Nemophora degeerella

Adaina microdactyla? or Hellinsia species

Posted by Bennyboymothman at 08:18

1 comment:

  1. Lucy @ A Natural Interlude12 June 2014 at 15:46

    I like your female longhorn, Ben. I've developed a soft spot for this little moth, which is persistently "flocking" in my garden at the moment. Good luck with the field trip this week (hope you keep dry at least :-)).

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