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, 11 June 2015

A few from Scales Park

Hello all.
Had a quick walk around the huge Scales Park near Anstey in Hertfordshire and noted some pretty good moths and other bugs.
This huge expanse of dry/wet woodland, scrub, meadow has it all and is a superb site that just screams wildlife.
The day was generally cloudy with sunny periods at times, in fact the dull conditions made it easier to spot things.
I wasn't hopeful of finding much, it was windy and cool but I was pleasantly surprised.

 I found the usual Celypha lacunana, Epiblema cirsiana, Pyrausta aurata, Hedya pruniana and lots of Silver-ground Carpets and Nemophora degeerella's
But better was a single Gold Swift, my first Hertfordshire record and only my second ever sighting of one (first was last year on a field trip to Home Wood in Bedfordshire)
Also I was so lucky in spotting a single Glyphipterix forsterella flitting about the vegetation. I believe there isn't many Hertfordshire records of this micro moth. It is superficially similar to Glyphipterix simpliciella but has a silvery dot in the black apical spot on the forewing, it has probably been over-looked somewhat.
My only other record is two individuals from my parents farm in 2013.
 
I also managed a new moth for me and one i've been hunting for for ages, one of the Micropterix species, Micropterix aruncella. A lousy photo of it at the moment as it just would not stay still and everytime I went to take a photo of it before I potted it up, it kept flying away and in fear of my eyesight not keeping up with its movements I had no choice but to pot it up!

Some nice Longhorns around today as well.

Gold Swift











Glyphipterix forsterella











Micropterix arncella












Nemophora degeerella












Celypha lacunana











Epiblema cirsiana











Hedya pruniana











 
Agapanthia villosoviridescens












Stenocorus meridianus












Platystoma seminationis






Posted by Bennyboymothman at 08:13

2 comments:

  1. Lucy @ A Natural Interlude11 June 2015 at 13:11

    Cor, I love the Gold Swift, Ben. What a beauty! And the little Micropterix arncella is rather lovely too. Looks like Scales Park is a worthwhile place to explore :o)!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bennyboymothman27 June 2015 at 20:26

    Hi Lucym, so sorry Imissed this comment! Yes Scales Park is certainly a place I will be trapping in the near future.

    ReplyDelete

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