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

Saturday, 1 April 2017

Field Trip - Ashwell Quarry - 30/03/17

On Thursday night I made a trip to Ashwell Quarry in the far North-West of the County of Hertfordshire.

The weather was just perfect with highs of 21 degrees during the day and whilst setting up at 7.30pm it was still 17 degrees and even at packing up time at midnight the car temperature gauge read still read a balmy 15.5c all the way home!

I decided to run 4 traps in the end, a mixture of different light sources.

The four traps were 2x 125w MV Robinsons, 1x 160w Mercury Blended Robinson Trap and my homemade twin 20w wemlite actinic trap.
The results to each trap were quite shocking.

Both MVs had less than 20 moths in and around the traps.
The MBT had just 12 moths but did attract the only Red-green Carpet of the night.
The 20w twin wemlite actinic homemade jobby had 87 moths in and around the grass and had the only Small Quaker, Early Grey, Diurnea fagella and Dotted Chestnut of the night. 25 of those moths were Red Chestnut.

It was just great to see so many moths flying this early on in the season...a sign of things to come perhaps? Lets hope so and I look forward to surveying this land again soon.

Catch Report - 30/03/17 - Ashwell Quarry - North-west Heerts - 2x 125w MV Robinson Trap 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap & 1x 40w Actinic Trap - Warm and muggy, stiffening Easterly breeze by 11pm - minimum of 15c

227 moths of 21 species

Macro Moths

2x Chestnut
7x Clouded Drab
108x Common Quaker
1x Dotted Chestnut
8x Double-striped Pug
1x Early Grey
1x Early Thorn
1x Engrailed
24x Hebrew Character
2x March Moth
1x Nut-tree Tussock
37 Red Chestnut
1x Red-green Carpet
2x Scorched Carpet
1x Small Quaker
 
Micro Moths

22x Agonopterix alstromeriana
2x Agonopterix arenella
3x Agonopterix heracliana
1x Caloptilia semifascia
1x Diurnea fagella
1x Epiphyas postvittana

Caloptilia semifascia











Dotted Chestnut













Red Chestnut













Red-green Carpet













Scorched Carpet

Posted by Bennyboymothman at 08:48

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