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 3 September 2024

Lesser Treble-bar!

Saturday night was a very good night in my garden for moths, despite the nagging wind, the temperature stayed above 17 degrees all night. By dawn it appeared that the wind had abated a bit and there were plenty of moths to record and look at closer in pots.

42 species were logged, slightly up on recent years on this date (generally around the low 30 species mark).

Best moth of the night went to my very first Lesser Treble-bar, a female.
This comes after checking countless specimens spanning nearly two decades! I must be close to have checked nigh on 500 specimens in the last 18 years.
Well chuffed, and on the garden list to boot!

The second good moth was another new species for the garden, the ever variable Acleris cristana.

I get this moth quite regularly at my local nature reserve a mere mile away as the moth flies, and with plentiful thickets of Hawthorn & Blackthorn along our road, I did expect it at some point, but somehow it took a bit longer than expected. Certainly worth the wait!

Two more new additions for 2024 were Dioryctria simplicella (which is annual as a singleton) and Eudonia pallida (Which is a common moth locally, and oddly I missed out last year).

Some flashy macros added some dazzle, with Gold Spot returning and a fabulous Lilac Beauty.


Moth garden list for 2024 stands at 570 species
 
31/08/24 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap

Macro Moths 

Lesser Treble-bar 1 [NEW!]
Gold Spot 1
Lilac Beauty 1

Micro Moths

Acleris cristana 1 [NFG]
Dioryctria simplicella 1 [NFY] 
Eudonia pallida 1 [NFY] 
Phyllonorycter maestingella 1 [NFY]
Ostrinia nubilalis 1 
Phyllonorycter spinicolella (emerged from leaf mine)

Ostrinia nubilalis

Acleris cristana

Dioryctria simplicella

Eudonia pallida

Gold Spot

Lesser Treble-bar

Lesser Treble-bar - Female

Lilac Beauty


Posted by Bennyboymothman at 19:09

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