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, 27 May 2021

Three times the action

From the trap last night, my lunchtime walk at work and to a pheremone lure in the garden, moths are beginning to creep out, albeit in low numbers still.
There were just 7 moths of 4 species to my Mercury Vapor trap last night, given that it was a super bright moon and we had not a smidge of cloud cover, it wasn't bad really.
 
The temperature dipped to 7c, right on the cusp of actually bothering to switch on. But, because it's nearly June I felt like I had to!
No new species for the year were observed

A lunchtime walk with my net yielded plenty of Nematopogon species, mostly swammerdamella, but my last one I disturbed was much smaller and more refined. It was infact the other similar species, Nematopogon schwarziellus, the less common one I always find.
 
A quick whip round with the lure traps in the garden with my son, after doing some gardening turned up a small Tortrix to the FUNebrana lure.
It appeared very dark to the naked eye and I thought it must be albginana. On closer inspection and after some photos, it was clearly a suspectana, with it's rather golden streaky markings in the termen area.
A much better marked example than the two I lured last year.

My garden still is the only site in Herts for this species, an Ash feeder... it must turn up somewhere else soon surely?
I will be taking the lure to the cemetery where I work tomorrow.

Moth species for 2021 in the garden now stands at 63.

26/05/21 - Back Garden - Stevenage - North Herts - 125w MV Robinson Trap
 
Macro Moths
 

Pale Tussock 1
Rustic Shoulder-knot 4
Turnip Moth 1

Micro Moths
 
Epiphyas postvittana 1 
 
 
27/05/21 - Work - Bishop's Stortford - East Herts - Daytime

Glyphipterix fuscoviridella 15
Nematopogon swammerdamella 8 
Nematopogon schwarziellus 1

 
27/05/21 - Back Garden - Stevenage - North Herts -Daytime to FUNebrana Lure

Pammene suspectana 1 [NFY]




Posted by Bennyboymothman at 20:38

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