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

Monday 1 September 2014

Back from Croatia with the moth that has no name...

Hi everyone. I have recently got back from our honeymoon to Croatia.

 We both had a lovely time, the weather was a bit up and down unfortunately but we had some nice and sunny days with highs around 30 degrees.

Me being me decided to do a bit of exploring around the local area.

 I had numerous walks up the road towards scrubby land and mixed woodland where I observed plenty of Butterflies, Crickts, Grasshoppers, Mantids and of course Moths!

 I also decided to do a couple of walks to the favoured areas with a fishing net (which I bought out there as I forgot to pack my net!) a torch and a few pots.
I should have taken more pots....and 8 just wasn't enough.

 Of the 20 or so species of moth I saw out there, the most interesting was this Strathmopoda species (Which I assume it is).
Bearing in mind there is only one known Strathmopoda species in Europe (pedella) this got me rather excited to say the least.
From what I have been told, there is a new species of Strathmopoda being described at present, and this species could link with that?
I have also been told that it will need dissecting to rule out a possible aberrant Strathmopoda pedella.

See what you think, but it doesn't seem to resemble 'pedella' going on the markings.


I will add more photos when I get some more time as the four letter word beckons...work!


The local area









Typical habitat









Strathmopoda...











Eublemma elychrysi













Pale Shoulder










Spotted Sulphur










Strathmopoda...
Posted by Bennyboymothman at 08:09

2 comments:

  1. Bomber4 September 2014 at 22:55

    Hiya, could it be this? An adventive discovered in Abbotsbury gardens, Dorset. Pachyrhabda steropodes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown12 November 2015 at 18:37

      Not sure if this is still of interest but your moth is a Gelechid called Palumbina guerinii.
      I recorded it on the island of Milos in Greece during early October this year.
      It was kindly identified by Syaak Koster after being sent to him by Bob Heckford. My thanks to both as would never have found it myself as I also thought it was a Stathmopodid.
      Regards
      Kim Leaver

      Delete

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