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

Wednesday, 26 June 2019

Just incredible

Is how I would describe opening the trap on Tuesday morning.. it was exciting noting down so many good moths, but equally frustrating that it was hammering down with rain, and I was bent over at a 45 degree angle trying to shield the trap with my bright blue cagoule! 
Despite the rain, it was very mild, in facrt the night didn't drop below 16 degrees and as a result it was a busy trap with over 70 species.
Rain and moth wings, don;'t mix very well. This was apparent upon finding the first moth paddling around on the patio, gah... it was a garden first and one of Britains prettiest moths, the Scarlet Tiger... not this one, the poor thing was drowning so I quickly potted him up and dried him off as best as I could, such a shame.

 This is only my second record of Scarlet Tiger, the first was in 2014 in Hemel Hempstead.

Adding to that initial excitement were a further two new for garden species, Elegia similella and a Scrobipalpa sp, which looks very good for Tuta absoluta....possibly a County first for Herts. We'll see, but it certainly caught my eye, all 7mm of it!


21 nfy species is nearly the most new for year species i've recorded in one sitting (23 the best).


Garden species count for 2019 now upto 230.






















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

24/06/19

Macro Moths

Barred Straw 1 [NFY]
Beautiful Golden-Y 1 [NFY]
Beautiful Hook-tip 1 [NFY]
Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing 1 [NFY]
Cloaked Minor 1 [NFY]
Fan-foot 1 [NFY]
Lackey 2 [NFY]
Lesser Yellow Underwing 1 [NFY]
Scarlet Tiger 1 [NFY]


Micro Moths

Archips xylosteana 1 [NFY]
Argyresthia cupressella 1 [NFY]
Blastodacna hellerella 1 [NFY]
Crassa unitella 1 [NFY]
Elegia similella 1 [NFG]
Endothenia gentianaeana/marginana 1 [NFY]
Eudonia pallida 1 [NFY]
Oegoconia sp 1 [NFY]
Pandemis heparana 1 [NFY]
Phycitodes binaevella 1 [NFY]
pos Tuta absoluta TBC and added
Zeiraphera isertana 2 [NFY]

Scarlet Tiger

Barred Straw

Endothenia gentianaeana/marginana

Lackey

pos Tuta absoluta

Beautiful Golden-Y

Blastodacna hellerella

Lesser Yellow Underwing

Oegoconia sp

Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing

Cloaked Minor

Zeiraphera isertana variations

Elegia similella

Posted by Bennyboymothman at 22:13

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)