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, 3 May 2018

May I bring you my new trap! Testing and some moths

The start of May usually heralds a glimmer of hope that the moth season is fast approaching and it won't be long before traps will be full of moths again.
I'd been toying with the idea into getting a new bulb for my trap, initially a clear 125w Mercury Vapor.
This wasn't possible as the only ones I could find were from overseas and it is now an offence to import any Mercury Vapor bulbs into Europe as of 2008.
So basically us moth'ers have been living off European stock for as long as ten years already, and a lot of bulbs being sold on the likes ebay are used.
I got in touch with Paul Batty who came up trumps with a new clear bulb, but it was to be the 250w variety, which is extremely bright and literally unobtainable nowadays.
Paul secured a small stock of these bulbs and I look forward to trying it out from now on.

10 moths of 6 species was good for a cool and clear night...was it the bulb with better UV output that did it? Or was it just luck on a cool night where I would normally blank! Who knows.

Brindled Beauty was only the third garden record, what a lovely moth it is.
 

 Catch Report - 01/05/18 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 250w Clear MV Robinson Trap

 Macro Moths


Brindled Beauty 1 [NFY]
Common Quaker 1
Lunar Marbled Brown 3
Nut-tree Tussock 3

Micro Moths

Dyseriocrania subpurpurella 1
Epermenia chaerophyllella 1

W&D larger Robinson Trap with new collar and 250w GES MV Bulb fitted

Adjusting the height of the rainguard to accommodate the large bulb

Polishing the finnel

Nut-tree Tussock

Brindled Beauty


Epermenia chaerophyllella

Posted by Bennyboymothman at 15:00

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