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, 24 May 2019

Variety from the garden trap

On Tuesday night it was really nice seeing a great deal of variety in the garden trap, upon opening it on Wednesday morning.

 Highlights from the large side of moths, were two cracking fresh species that aren't always annual here.
Toadflax Brocade is increasing here and I now get both generations (I now have 3 records so far this year at time of going to blog).
Even better was a really fresh Figure of Eighty, with a lovely purple sheen behind the head, something i've never noticed it having before.

 Micro moths are still few and far between, but the most interesting one was also the smallest and was whisked over to Graeme Smith to be looked at, it was a tiny metallic Stigmella which turns out to be Stigmella samiatella, an Oak mining species and probably the product of the mature Oaks at the rear of our garden.
It is a new species for my UK list and the 342nd Micro species for the year.
Garden species count for 2019 now upto 101.

Catch Report - Back Garden - Stevenage - 125w MV Robinson Trap

21/05/19

Macro Moths

Common Swift 2 [NFY]
Figure of Eighty 1 [NFY]
Red Twin-spot Carpet 1 [NFY]
Toadflax Brocade 1 [NFY]
Brimstone Moth 4
Garden Carpet 1
Heart & Dart 5
Shuttle-shaped Dart 8
Turnip Moth 2
Vine's Rustic 4

 Micro Moths


Notocelia cynosbatella 2 [NFY]
Stigmella samiatella 1 [NEW]
Tachystola acroxantha 1 [NFY] 
Epiphyas postvittana 2
Aphomia sociella 1
Syndemis musculana 1 
Common Swift

Figure of Eighty

Notocelia cynosbatella

Red Twin-spot Carpet

Stigmella samiatella

Toadflax Brocade
Posted by Bennyboymothman at 22:45

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)