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

Tuesday, 16 January 2018

Scrobipalpa atriplicella

Whilst I have time to catch-up with moth records (As it's far to cold to stir anything to my garden moth trap currently), i've been going through some dissections that have been trickling to me from about July time from Graeme Smith whom kindly has been helping myself and a lot of others put names to small brown moths!
Still sorting photos to dissection photos etc but the first species that is worth a mention is the 4th County record of Scrobipalpa atriplicella, which I took to light on 22nd of May 2017
from Ashwell Quarry in the far North-West of the County of Hertfordshire.


This Moth was last seen in 1999 and the other 2 records are from 1900 and 1970!

Intially the Scrobipalpa species looked a dead-ringer for Scrobipalpa suaedella (see photo comparison below). I like to always take a punt and a guess at an identification before we get to the real truth and alas I was wrong this time!
Scrobipalpa suaedella of course would have been new to the County list! You sort of have to set your hopes high don't you.




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