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

Friday, 27 March 2015

Some wanderings

As I had a day off today I decided to try and find some Broom shrubs that are now in flower and easy to spot, the reason being behind the fact that Agonopterix assimilella using this as it's foodplant and the larval spinnings should be quite easy to spot.
 

Driving out from Stevenage I noticed lots of bushes in people's gardens, this looked promising and so my first stop would be at Waterford Heath.
NO, a bit at zero bushes found there, but easily distracted by the large amount of Teasels around I decided to pick some to take home to check for Endothenia larvae....more o that later.

Next stop was Panshangar Park, where this rare moth was last recorded on BROOM! So it must be here....somewhere....anywhere? All I found after 90 minutes of walking was Gorse and then I found some! Unfortunately no larval spinnings were observed.

Nevermind, a quick trip across the pond to where a large area of Bullrush were situated and a couple of quick snaps of the easy to find Limnaecia phragmitella (obvious from the huge clumps of frass exploding fro the head).

Now, back to the Teasels
I took 8 heads home, 1 had nothing in it, 5 had Endothenia gentianaeana (no anal comb and reddish head) larva inside, the other 2 had Endothenia marginana (blackish head, anal comb observed) larva inside.

All in all it was nice to get out in the fresh air for a couple of hours.

 
Limnaecia phragmitella Larva







Bullrush emaciated by larva













Endothenia ready for emergence










Endothenia gentianaeana larva










Endothenia marginana larva
Posted by Bennyboymothman at 13:28

2 comments:

  1. ron28 March 2015 at 09:58

    Interesting, what do you do next pot them up along with the teasel heads until a cocoon is formed
    Ron

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bennyboymothman28 March 2015 at 10:56

    Hi Ron. I believe they form a Cocoon inside the teasel once they have finished feeding, should be easy peasy.

    ReplyDelete

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