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

Saturday 11 April 2015

The garden species list goes up..

With the new addition of a Shoulder-stripe turning up last night for the 5th GMS night of the year.
Moth species for the garden are at a very impressive 492 species after 2 years and 8 months trapping from the date we bought our house.
I would really like to aim for 500 species this year as a sort of target to set my sights on, but it becomes increasingly tricky as all of the common moths are featured on the list.

 Waffle over, the catch last night was pretty good by my garden standards for early April and the best catch so far this year, in total 82 moths of 14 species were noted.

It is best to note that all the previous moths that I have caught (because of how tiny our garden is) on previous sessions were transported to our local wood about 1/4 mile away in hope of not re-trapping the same moths over and over again, it also seems to ease bird predation in the garden.

 Highlights were the garden first Shoulder-stripe and a year first Pine Beauty (what beautiful moths these are)
The night stayed relatively warm with temperatures still sitting at 9c this morning.
The weather is set to change over the weekend which is a shame, but...it may look brighter by mid-week fingers crossed where I will be once again venturing out with the Boxmoor Trust guys and surveying the land once more.

Catch Report -  10/04/15 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

Macro Moths

1x Shoulder-stripe [NFG]
1x Pine Beauty [NFY]
4x Brindled Pug
2x Double-striped Pug
27x Common Quaker
9x Small Quaker
5x Clouded Drab
17x Hebrew Character
3x Early Grey
3x Chestnut

Micro Moths

3x Diurnea fagella
1x Acleris hastiana
5x Emmelina monodactyla
1x Amblyptilia acanthadactyla 

Pine Beauty










Shoulder-stripe





Posted by Bennyboymothman at 09:31

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