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, 30 December 2016

Stepping back in time...an October round-up

Yep...it's time to pull my finger out and finally update my blog for the year with catches from both October and November and a few from December still to write up I feel I might be some time!

I will leave it brief and literally just list the catch results.

Here is October, and we follow on from the first catch of October (a few blog posts back) and with a low catch of just 7 moths, this theme would continue through the month.
On the 07th the big surprise was my latest ever record of Hypsopygia costalis and a nice rarely recorded second brood example and also another 2 new for year moths, Red-line Quaker and Feathered Thorn.

On the 13th I had a great catch of 22 moths due to the mild night and I also recorded my 12th Caloptilia semifascia of the year which is a massive boom on previous years of 1's and 2's. Another migrant Nomophila noctuella was also nice to see and a different example than the one on the 7th.

On the 16th it all went pear-shaped and the weather was very cool at night time, and feeling more and more Autumnal. Switching to the 40w Actinic it yielded just 2 moths! On the plus side the November Moth was new for the year and yet another Nomophila noctuella and again a different moth.

On the 18th it was back to the MV and another meagre catch but with a pristine Merveille du Jour I wasn't complaining. This was almost a month after my first record this year on the 28th of September!

Two days later on the 20th was more of the same.

With 6 nights off and back to trapping on the 26th it was a much better catch with 12 moths of 7 species and a welcome splash of colour from another Merveille du Jour.

With mild nights abound I ran the trap on 3 consecutive nights and I was rewarded with lots of moths. Best of all were year firsts of Ypsolopha alpella and Brick on the 28th.


Catch Report - 07/10/16 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

Feathered Thorn 1 [NFY] 
Red-line Quaker 1 [NFY]
Common Marbled Carpet 2
Double-striped Pug 1
Red-green Carpet 1

Micro Moths

Hypsopygia costalis

Catch Report - 13/10/16 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

Common Marbled Carpet 2
Green-brindled Crescent 3
Large Yellow Underwing 5
Lesser Yellow Underwing 1
Red-line Quaker 2
Satellite 1
Yellow-line Quaker 1

Micro Moths

Caloptilia semifascia 1 
Emmelina monodactyla 2
Epiphyas postvittana 3
Nomophila noctuella 1

Catch Report - 16/10/16 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 40w Actinic Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

November Moth 1 [NFY]

Micro Moths

Nomophila noctuella 1


Catch Report - 18/10/16 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

Merveille du Jour 1
November Moth 1 
Red-line Quaker 1

Micro Moths

Epiphyas postvittana 1

Catch Report - 20/10/16 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 40w Actinic Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

Double-striped Pug 1
Green-brindled Crescent 1
November Moth 4

Micro Moths

Amblyptilia acanthadactyla 1

Catch Report - 26/10/16 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

Barred Sallow 1
Lunar Underwing 1
Merveille du Jour 1
November Moth 4 
Silver-Y 1

Micro Moths

Acleris schallariana 2
Epiphyas postvittana 2


Catch Report - 27/10/16 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

Barred Sallow 1
Green-brindled Crescent 1
Large Yellow Underwing 1
Lunar Underwing 1
November Moth 10
Yellow-line Quaker 1

Micro Moths
 
Acleris sparsana 2
Ambluptilia acanthadactyla 1
Emmelina monodactyla 1

Catch Report - 28/10/16 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

Brick 1 [NFY] 
Beaded Chestnut 1
Feathered Thorn 1
Large Ranunculus 1
Large Yellow Underwing 3
Merveille du Jour 3
Red-green Carpet 1


Micro Moths
 
Ypsolopha alpella 1 [NFY]
Acleris sparsana 5
Epiphyas postvittana 5

Satellite












Feathered Thorn











Acleris schalleriana










November Moth sp











November Moth sp










 
Caloptilia semifascia

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